Microsoft is reportedly facing prolonged investigations into its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard in both the UK and Europe.
Last week, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said its inquiry into the $68.7 billion merger may be expanded to a second phase due to a number of antitrust concerns.
Notably, it said it was worried about the impact the deal could have on PlayStation’s ability to compete, given that the deal would see Microsoft gain ownership of the Call of Duty series.
According to the Financial Times, the CMA is expected to officially expand its antitrust probe this week after Microsoft chose not to offer any remedies to its concerns at this stage.
Phase two of the CMA’s investigation would see it appoint an independent panel to scrutinise the deal in further detail and evaluate if it’s more likely than not to result in a substantial lessening of competition.
According to the FT, regulators and others involved in the deal are also expecting a lengthy EU probe once Microsoft officially files its case in Brussels soon.
“It is a big deal, a difficult deal,” a Brussels source said to be familiar with the transaction told the publication. “It needs an extensive investigation.”
IGN Entertainment has acquired the Gamer Network family of digital brands for an undisclosed sum. As a result of the acquisition, some redundancies have been made across the UK-based organisation.
Well this can only mean one thing... more job layoffs even in the publication industry.
“Layoffs occuring“
Yep. IGN now has a monopoly in the gaming media.
“As a result of the acquisition, some redundancies have been made across the UK-based organisation.”
“Gamer Network's publications are GamesIndustry.biz, Eurogamer (including six local language editions), Rock Paper Shotgun, VG247 and Dicebreaker. The business also holds shares in Outside Xbox, Digital Foundry and Hookshot (which operates Nintendolife, PushSquare, PureXbox and Time Extension).”
“IGN Entertainment is the division of Ziff Davis that includes IGN, MapGenie, HowLongToBeat, and Humble Bundle. It has acquired the websites from PAX and New York Comic-Con organiser ReedPop, which initially bought the Gamer Network business in 2018.“
Surprising news, also a little sad as the magazine era is over and the website era is slowly coming to an end. But it must be said that many of the bastards who work at these places have operated as a mafia to control opinion on not only what can be said about games, but who can be allowed to talk about them, and what can be allowed to feature in them or not. As said above, redundancies are coming, Eurogamer pays the highest salaries for a team of staff who for some their output is minimal. Eurogamer also campaigned against Hogwarts Legacy and refused to review it -, the site took a hit. PAX has probably thought to cut its losses. Some job layoffs? I know of some of these people and they took pride in excluding - I will shed no tears.
This is exactly what Microsoft needs to better their image, control over the narrative by having the same message come from different colors umbrellas that are all really made by the same company.
All this means is a collective hive mind when reporting the news
They’ll discuss with each other how to handle topics and what kind of headlines to go with so they can fire round after round of whatever point they want to make
And the sad thing is over the many years even to the old GameGate days they love making gamers look bad as a collective. Anything for a hit piece.
Narrative control. I don’t like this at all.
Independent reviewers will be more important than ever.
"They’ll discuss with each other how to handle topics and what kind of headlines to go with so they can fire round after round of whatever point they want to make."
You say this like it will be a new thing that they didn't already do.
Yea, I had actually just seen today on Linkedin that a GamesIndustry.biz guy was talking about being laid off. I didn't read all of his post, but I bet it's because of this. That's a shame to hear. :\
Probably Microsoft's fault!
They surely gave IGN the idea.
What's next IGN Pass?
But joke aside let's hope that this makes the news better compared to some of IGN branches
Microsoft and IGN work quite closely so it isn't a stretch to say this is a move to control the gaming press to get everyone singing from the Microsoft hymn sheet. Not a good look at all. It is transparent stuff like this which is backfiring in Microsoft's face. First they want control of all the games now the media.
While there's obviously a desire to preserve add revenue and early access to review copies, I doubt there's the level of conspiracy here that you imply. I mean there's no direct link between MS and IGN right?
You're probably right!!!!
Here's MS evil plan
1) Make sure that Hellblade 2 receives inflated reviews.
2) Fire all the ppl across UK who gave Starfield the justified 6/10 reviews
3) Make sure that Game industry.biz stops giving Sony's president a tribute to spew their lies and have them talk to Sarah Bonds and Todd Howard only.
4) Control the majority of players for the GOTY award so MS wins from now on.
PPL needs to know about this!
@crazyCoconuts The world has moved on from "direct links" as companies were easily caught doing that. These days corporations can merely operate as a cartel through shared mutual interest which is not strictly kosher either but is also more difficult to prove. It's the fundamental flaw with big corporations in the US economy today and no one in power is addressing it.
Is there proof to anything you're saying?
I've never heard of anything like this or is this N4G once again make believing stuff outta thin air again?
@jing if you have proof then I stand corrected.
Otherwise it seems like more conspiratorial thinking to explain what could otherwise be explained by natural forces of market economies.
Don't get me wrong, I believe there is bias all over and unsavory influences. I just don't think it's all centrally planned by evil villains in a smoke-filled room
I don't think anyone has proof but my personal experience corroborates what he is saying about IGN being in MS’s corner for whatever reason.
Granted, Last time I visited IGN regularly was years ago, I literally stopped once I realized the huge bias they showed in favor of xbox. Their pages for the two consoles were fundamentally different. When they would invite xbox president he was treated completely different than when Shuhei Yoshida was invited. The xbox pres was treated as one of their own. There was just too many examples, it wasn’t even much of a secret.
@Lighting77 The proof is in the pudding, "Partnerships for Events: Microsoft and IGN partner for specific events or showcases." "Sponsored Segments: Microsoft has sponsored segments within IGN's showcases." "Industry Relationships: Microsoft and IGN, as major players in the gaming industry, simply have good working relationships. This leads to collaborations on shows & joint announcements without any ownership involved." They just had an event together recently. The crux of it is money is being exchanged for favors, when that happens editorial independence goes out the window.
There was controversy about Microsoft having involvement with Polygon in the past and it proved to be real and effected their editorial bias. "Investment in Web3 Startup: Microsoft's venture capital arm, M12, participated in a $20 million funding round for Space and Time, a Web3 data warehousing platform, alongside Polygon (amongst other investors) "
The embargo was to make sure IGN had time to finalize the deal and make sure Eurogamer gave this game a 5 stars instead of a 3.
Man, how devious and low can Microsoft go just to promote Gamepass
I heard that it costs a ton of money to MS and they will raise the price of Gamepass by a lot of money just to compensate
true story
Oh boy! If we've learned one thing about recent news, corporate shrinkage of an industry via buyouts from those at top only leads to good things for employees and consumers!
Aloy!
Yes, good credible websites, I agree, it is a good match.
IGN is one of the most trusted gaming sites, weather you like it or not, but I know because they don't fit the N4G goofiness bubble, they can't be good.
I left ign years ago. Used to be on the ign forums all the time. I left there and found here. Not sure if you remember but this place used to be pretty bad for Sony fans. 360 was king for a few years. Anyone I don't quite remember but ign changed. Whatever the fk it was it seemed for the worse.
Ummmm not sure that’s a good thing that all these review sites are under the same umbrella. There’s no guarantee that they will maintain a non-bias opinion not paid for by the highest bidder.
You can go much farther back than that. Never forget the Kane and Lynch 2 review drama
Edit: wait that was GameSpot. Still though - don't trust these websites for anything. Find YouTubers like who's opinions you agree with and watch them instead. GaminylGames, Minimme, Digital Foundry, GMan, whatever. All better than these ad-filled "reviews" from people who are forced to play games and score with an arbitrary number
@Amplitude
Digital Foundry has lost my trust ever since they got that MS money, but other than that, I'm with you.
If I'm on the fence of a game, I wait till the reviewers that share my taste has given their opinion.
@MrNinosan
I didn't blame Microsoft for inviting digital foundry to expressly launch their new hardware, I mean good move by them getting a non bias technology focused influencer to gush about the series x, my issue is they took them up on their offer, taking a blatant sweetener like that really irks me, ever since I view their content with a pinch of salt
Ouch, that does not sounds good for Eurogamer.
With so much of the industry media that will more or less follow the same editorial line, it will be harder and harder to distinguish PR from actual journalism in a couple of years.
Thinking about it, may it explain their review score for Hellblade 2?
***harder and harder to distinguish PR from actual journalism in a couple of years. ***
The age of gaming advertorials.
You're right all of this is just to promote Hellblade 2 and inflate the score.
Also the why cuts are indeed coming to Eurogamer and other UK branches because they only gave Starfield an average score.
Shed the non US assets that are not favorable to Xbox keep the US assets that are. Microsoft are going to deliver crap and they are going to tell you their crap is good and you are going to buy it. That seems to be the strategy. At this point I just want them out of gaming as they are operating like cancer.
Exactly right. No more journalists. Just 1 take regurgitated & paraphrased down the chain. Smh.
Their marketing budget is nonexistent. Instead they will publish articles for you to click on this site to get information (biased propaganda) about their games and ad dollars from you here and on their website too.
This is the new marketing strategy
"To celebrate its 20th anniversary, QubicGames is bringing a curated collection of its top titles on Steam. As a launch gift to players, there is even a "20 for 20 - Anniversary Bundle" that will be heavily discounted to allow gamers to purchase their favorite titles at irresistible prices. Players who purchase the entire bundle at once will pay less than $20!" - QubicGames.
Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick joins 'Money Movers' to discuss the company's quarterly earnings results, how confident Zelnick is in the guidance for fall 2025, and much more.
Everyone expected this acquisition to be scrutinized, even Microsoft - that's why they tempered expectations that it won't close until 2023. The internet will explode on the day that this deal closes.
Looking forward to this closing though, this year will be the last year I sink money into Call of Duty.
“Microsoft lawyers respond to CMA by offering no remedies/commitments“
It’s pretty clear they’re confident the deal will close then.
This acquisition is not healthy for the gaming industry.
The biggest issue is the lie Microsoft told the industry that there was this outside threat. That if they didn't save.....buy these companies, others would have swooped in to buy them. They do need scrutiny. If those other companies did buy them, there's a clear chance they would have continued making multiplatform games. Because there's money there. Being that most 3rd parties made more money on PlayStation. And there's still Nintendo, Xbox, mobile and PC to make money from. Microsoft is making them exclusive to their platform and services.
Did Facebook, Apple, Amazon or Google buy any big console publishers BEFORE Microsoft did with Zenimax/Bethesda?
No. They had plenty of time.
Did any of the four show interest and buy any big console publishers AFTER Microsoft moved in to buy Zenimax/Bethesda?
No again. They had plenty of time.
Did the big four show interest in buying any big console publishers AFTER Microsoft moved in to buy Activision/Blizzard?
No. Still not seeing it yet?
We have not heard or seen any movement from these companies. A developer here. A developer there. No big console publishers. Yet, Microsoft felt it necessary to move in and buy two big ones. Supposedly to create their own metaverse. To gain a foothold on mobile. Besides saving Kotick's ass. Microsoft knows exactly what it does to PlayStation and other platforms.
Tencent was considered a threat from Kotick's words. But Tencent owns developers that make multiplatform games. Embracer Group owns multiple developers that make multiplatform games. No threat there. Those companies bought developers and continue to spread games around.
But what Microsoft is doing is creating an imbalance. Supposedly, to bring "joy and unity of gaming to everyone on the planet." That was Satya Nadella's words. That's what he told investors. Joy is fine. Unity sounds like control and a monopoly with them on top. I'm guessing Windows Internet explorer brought joy and unity as well Satya. And that's why Microsoft was sued with anti trust. Microsoft is now trying to leverage game pass in a similar fashion to Internet Explorer. Where some devices aren't compatible or willing to have it. Creating inoperability. Are wonder who devices aren't compatible with game pass? Hmmm...
The purchase will most likely go through. There's so many shady things that get allowed. So, I wouldn't be surprised. But it's obvious what Microsoft is doing. Embrace Extend Extinguish. It's still the same. Just done in a different industry. AT&T learned this years ago as well. Do I see "Baby Bells" in Microsoft future? We'll just have to see.