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Shagger

Xbox to Buy Activision-Blizzard for $68.7 Billion.

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24 minutes ago, Shagger said:

Back on topic, and a spokesperson for PlayStation has stated they expect Microsoft to honour "contractual obligations" and thus continue to release multiplatform Activision-Blizzard games on PlayStation consoles. Full details from Video Games Chronicle.

 

It's obvious that if Acti-Blizzard made a deal with other platform holders to release on them then they have to honour that, but that won't last forever.  It is gonna be kinda funny to see what in a sense are XBox games releasing on PlayStation for a while though!

Edited by Crazycrab
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As soon as that multi-platform contract runs out, Microsoft won't renew it, and the games that were being released on other platforms will then become Xbox exclusives. We're already seeing it with some AAA titles. We're not going to see another Elder Scrolls game on anything other than Xbox and PC since Microsoft owns Bethesda. But putting that aside, I think this whole situation is going to be split pretty evenly down the middle between gamers. Some liking it, the rest not liking it. Personally, I'm not a fan of the whole thing. It just means so many games will eventually at some point be Xbox/PC exclusive. That may be fine to the majority, but I'm not a PC gamer, and I've never liked Xbox. That opinion is just a biased disapproval though and completely irrelevant.

But like I said before, Microsoft is going to get as close to a monopoly as they legally can, and they won't stop buying up developers until they've reached that point.

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18 hours ago, Shagger said:

Back on topic, and a spokesperson for PlayStation has stated they expect Microsoft to honour "contractual obligations" and thus continue to release multiplatform Activision-Blizzard games on PlayStation consoles. Full details from Video Games Chronicle.

Does any agreement Activision-Blizzard  have with Playstation still apply when a new company take over ownership just like Microsoft did? 

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22 hours ago, Shagger said:

Back on topic, and a spokesperson for PlayStation has stated they expect Microsoft to honour "contractual obligations" and thus continue to release multiplatform Activision-Blizzard games on PlayStation consoles. Full details from Video Games Chronicle.

I believe that they are going to honor the contract for as long as the duration of it pans out or better still, they will terminate the contract if it doesn't suit them financially. 

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7 hours ago, Heatman said:

Does any agreement Activision-Blizzard  have with Playstation still apply when a new company take over ownership just like Microsoft did? 

They only have 2 options in this case, from a legal stand point. They can either honor the contracts already in place and let the games be released on multiple platforms. Or they can try to buy Sony out of the contract. But considering the monetary value, I don't see Sony being willing to let them buy them out. The capital that the sales would create is more than Microsoft could afford, as they would have to try to match that, or Sony could sue them for lost/stolen profits. At least they could in some courts. The laws here in the states change from zip code to zip code so much, that I just can't keep up with it.

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2 minutes ago, The Blackangel said:

They only have 2 options in this case, from a legal stand point. They can either honor the contracts already in place and let the games be released on multiple platforms. Or they can try to buy Sony out of the contract. But considering the monetary value, I don't see Sony being willing to let them buy them out. The capital that the sales would create is more than Microsoft could afford, as they would have to try to match that, or Sony could sue them for lost/stolen profits. At least they could in some courts. The laws here in the states change from zip code to zip code so much, that I just can't keep up with it.

 

Correct, it's much better for everyone if they just honour Acti-Blizzard's original agreements.  When one company buys out another they gain their assets and IP's, but that also they inherit their debts and responsibilities even if they make the agreements themselves.

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1 hour ago, The Blackangel said:

They only have 2 options in this case, from a legal stand point. They can either honor the contracts already in place and let the games be released on multiple platforms. Or they can try to buy Sony out of the contract. But considering the monetary value, I don't see Sony being willing to let them buy them out. The capital that the sales would create is more than Microsoft could afford, as they would have to try to match that, or Sony could sue them for lost/stolen profits. At least they could in some courts. The laws here in the states change from zip code to zip code so much, that I just can't keep up with it.

Sony has already said they expect the deals to stand until done. So what I think is going to happen, is that anything that's already slated for release, will still drop on the PlayStation, but any future titles won't be. Unless there is still a contract in place between Sony and Activision. I think Xbox and Microsoft will honor those deals and let them run out. I mean, they already allow games like Minecraft stay on the PlayStation, so the idea is that they'll just let the deal wind down. 

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2 hours ago, skyfire said:

For some reason I feel like Microsoft is better choice than some chinese company atleast people would not lose jobs to china this way. And the dev studio would retain their people.

 

I think we have already had enough anti-Chinese xenophobia is this thread already. As it wasn't established already, China has absolutely nothing to do with this. So if it's not too much trouble, stick to the topic.

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23 hours ago, Crazycrab said:

 

Correct, it's much better for everyone if they just honour Acti-Blizzard's original agreements.  When one company buys out another they gain their assets and IP's, but that also they inherit their debts and responsibilities even if they make the agreements themselves.

Sony already know the financial benefits they are getting from the deal when it was signed, so letting it off easily would never happen on their watch. 

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There are apparently some financial experts that believe Sony could be looking to make a major purchase of their own...  Electronic Arts.

 

https://www.gamingbible.co.uk/news/sony-set-to-buy-a-major-aaa-publisher-experts-say-20220121.amp.html

 

I want to make it that this is pure speculation but it does make some sense given Microsoft's recent acquisition of Activision-Blizzard.  I guess it all depends if SONY have the financial muscles and the balls to do it.

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Turns out that Microsoft is the second largest market that the U.S. congress invests stocks in after Apple. And with that in mind, having congress invest in monopolies they are supposed to regulate is a conflict of interest. The USA has antitrust laws to prevent monopolization and back in 2001 Microsoft was ordered by the government to break up into two companies for breaking the antitrust law. Microsoft filed an appeal and instead of breaking up, they were allowed to close the case with a settlement. And ultimately, by not forcing them to break up, we are again in this monopolization attempt today by Microsoft. Microsoft and Amazon have made the most acquisition deals in 2021 more than a whole decade. So those two companies are on the anti trust watch list from the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC and tech giants are in a 'cold war' of regulation and monopolization since Lina Khan has become head of the FTC because she has been cracking down on antitrust laws. So this acquisition is a big fuck you to the FTC as well as consumers. 

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Bill Gates actually had to pay to bail out Apple, or he would have had a monopoly on the computer market. He makes PC's and Apple makes their own version of a computing system. If they had gone under without him bailing them out, he would have had that monopoly.

But hopefully Sony will get that acquisition of EA, assuming it's an actual thing in the works that wouldn't bankrupt them in the end. It would at least stop Microsoft from owning everything.

But I have another question. Where does all this leave Nintendo? They're not buying up any studios as far as I'm aware. If all the studios get bought up, Nintendo is going to have a very limited game catalogue.

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On 1/23/2022 at 1:26 AM, Reality vs Adventure said:

Turns out that Microsoft is the second largest market that the U.S. congress invests stocks in after Apple. And with that in mind, having congress invest in monopolies they are supposed to regulate is a conflict of interest. The USA has antitrust laws to prevent monopolization and back in 2001 Microsoft was ordered by the government to break up into two companies for breaking the antitrust law. Microsoft filed an appeal and instead of breaking up, they were allowed to close the case with a settlement. And ultimately, by not forcing them to break up, we are again in this monopolization attempt today by Microsoft. Microsoft and Amazon have made the most acquisition deals in 2021 more than a whole decade. So those two companies are on the anti trust watch list from the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC and tech giants are in a 'cold war' of regulation and monopolization since Lina Khan has become head of the FTC because she has been cracking down on antitrust laws. So this acquisition is a big fuck you to the FTC as well as consumers. 

Once there is a deal for settlement, the government would definitely be willing to take it up because the money being talked about isn't a chicken change. It's win-win deal for them. 

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On 1/22/2022 at 9:31 AM, skyfire said:

For some reason I feel like Microsoft is better choice than some chinese company atleast people would not lose jobs to china this way. And the dev studio would retain their people.

Here we go again with the Chinese conspiracy theories and bull crap. Aren't we tired already mate? 

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