UK Government Now Wants Literally Anyone's Opinion On The Microsoft-Activision Blizzard Deal

Surely everyone will act in good faith when submitting their opinions to the UK's government about the proposed deal. Surely.

[Petebloodyonion]

Hey for once ppl can be heard on the subject :)

[PapaBop]

Heard by who? We don't even have a government lol

[VenomUK]

@PapaBop 🤣

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[EvertonFC]

So true🤣😂 what a mess the UK and US are in

[darthv72]

Sounds like a fine idea. I'm sure everyone will be completely honest and trustworthy.

/s

[jjb1981]

Including Microsoft....

[anubusgold]

@ jjb1981 Sony is the one that is trying to force us to buy 70 dollar games so they can get their 30 percent they are worse than Apple now they need to be smacked with a fat EU fine as well.

[Abracadabra]

Honestly, I think Microsoft should just let this deal fall flat. COD isn't as popular as it used to be... and declining.

Microsoft should go after Take-Two Interactive instead.

[darthv72]

i was really hoping MS would have gotten WB games when ATT was looking to sell a couple years ago.

[Eonjay]

Microsoft is the only company with the capital to build it's own IP 1000x over yet we see them trying to buy other studios and claim them for their own. Then they tell Sony to go innovate.

[Michiel1989]

i guess u have no idea how much warzone and cod mobile are mking. its more popular than ever

[jjb1981]

@Anusgold nobody is forcing you to spend money on an unnecessary hobby, at all, ever. You feel like that because you're a whiny little fan boy.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

For once ppl be informed about this deal and it's scummy aspects involved.

[Orchard]

Company A wants to be bought.
Company B wants to buy company A.
Company A accepts the offer from Company B.
Company A wants to be bought by Company B.

Nothing scummy about it. This isn't some hostile takeover.

[LordoftheCritics]

The dumb sheep see it as A and B.

In reality, its a industry shifting move with more moving parts and asset shifting and all kinds of things happening than just a simple A and B.

Its like what if one company bought every social media app and that one company side with only one political view?

Its just business right?

[SullysCigar]

That's all completely irrelevant in this context. It's being looked at from a competition standpoint within the market.

Microsoft has been manipulating facts in order to appeal as an underdog in need of a break.

This twisting and dodgy framing of information won't sit well with the UK authorities. It's these tactics that can be perceived as scummy.

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

I assume your novel on why it should go through has already been submitted?

[MontyeKristo]

LordoftheCritics - Your example is nothing like the situation, here. It's a laughable example, at best.

Your example states a company buying ALL of the competition, then forcing an agenda. All that is happening here, is like Facebook buying Twitter. There are still multiple other competitive social media apps out there. It's the same here with MS. MS wants one company.. Acti-Blizz. MS isn't buying Sony and Nintendo. We still have Ubisoft, Sony, EA, TakeTwo, Nintendo, etc.

Not the same at all.

[LordoftheCritics]

@MontyeKristo

MS buying out COD, has EA play on gamepass, has Halo

Do you not see the monopoly? They are locking down all the multiplayer, popular live service games etc
Diablo, Wow, Overwatch etc for a cloud/gaas future.

There is so much to it that any mildly sane person can dig up from this.

That example I gave is the same. Its different industry but finality is control of reality whether news, social media, gaming habits, purchasing habits. Monopoly is market control and reality control.

[MontyeKristo]

Lordofthecritics - It's no where near the same; that's an asinine thought process. MS is nowhere near a monopoly. Sony has been far closer, with the PS2 and its sales numbers, than any other company - or system.

They may have some games locked up but it doesn't prevent people leaving, forming new companies and creating something similar for PlayStation. Sony owns market share in almost every major gaming country in the world, except maybe the United States.

Regardless, there are hundred of games out and thousands of ideas and IPs. Sony just needs to reinvent or release something like SOCOM to compete. It's kinda on them to step up and create competition, now, against COD.

Buying every social media app and forcing one perspective =/= MS buying one, or even a few, gaming companies. Still so many options out there.

[Tacoboto]

The scumminess of Sony and their hypocrisy? Their self-determination to be unable to compete with COD by abandoning all FPS development? Their preaching of how "all gamers" will be hurt by the deal while buying exclusivity not just to entire games (as is common practice) but to downloadable/preorder content on games available to all platforms?

They've got COD content exclusivity, preorder content for Hogwarts Legacy, access to betas early. MS honored the Bethesda contracts. MS is stating to honor the COD contracts.

Activision has tons of IP but Sony is going down this path not because of those. Not because of King or Blizzard. It all comes down to an individual IP that Sony chose to not compete against, an IP that routinely gets railed on here because it's emblematic of Activision choosing to neglect almost all of their other properties.

Hopefully people will be informed but opening a comment box just opens the box, it does nothing to get people to think objectively about the facts involved.

[TriniOutsider]

Microsoft practiced the same scummy tactics back in the day.

[InUrFoxHole]

Ding ding! We have a winner. Sony has the most anti consumer practices this gen. They're slimy

[Tacoboto]

@ Trini

Cool. Sony used to think you should get a second job to afford a PS3. Remember PSN going down for an entire month?

Do you hold Sony to actions and attitudes from a decade ago?

[lodossrage]

What kills me here is people bring up console content exclusives when MS has done the exact same thing. Hell, for every time exclusive Sony has had, Microsoft has had the same.

And I'm sorry, time content deals or time exclusives DO NOT compare to having and entire giant company bought out (which is permanent).

Why people act as those a trillion dollar company is somehow this innocent being "bullied" by a company 1/10th their value is beyond me.

Like for example, people bring up SF V being playstation exclusive. Well, I can easily bring up Splinter Cell Conviction being xbox exclusive. Deathloop being a timed exclusive for Sony. But the same thing happened with Rise of the Tomb Raider with Xbox.

My point is these practices have gone on long before either Sony or MS ever got into gaming. And they BOTH partake in them. But for some reason SOME (not all) of the people here seem to act like Microsoft hasn't done the same as anyone else.

[Imalwaysright]

TriniOutsider

They took a page from Sony's playbook. Sony has been making exclusive deals since the PS1 days before MS introducing the Xbox brand to the console market so it's hilarious to see them crying about this deal when they were the biggest bullies in town back in the day and didn't seem to mind when the PS2 was the closest we ever got to a monopoly in this industry considering that it sold 3x the amount of all consoles of their competion combined: Dreamcast, Gamecube and Xbox.

[shinoff2183]

Ms started the trend during the 360 pse era are you old enough to remember. Cod gta4 tales of vespiria. Theres more. Dont be sad about it.

[Mr_cheese]

Tacoboto almost had a fair point until he neglected to throw any shade at Microsoft who not only run their FPS shooter to the ground but chose to attempt to buy the biggest one out there rather than fix or reinvest any money into their IP.

Both Microsoft and Sony neglected the FPS market and chose to let the gold goose COD go unchallenged yet only one of them, and the one who could build studio after studio with their own funds might I add, has chosen to buy the golden goose instead.

I swear Charlie and the chocolate factory covered this. I WANT IT NOW.

[Tacoboto]

If you believe anything you typed there, bravo.

"not only run their FPS shooter to the ground"

It was acclaimed enough at launch for another publisher to directly cite it as a reason their FPS underperformed. And acclaimed enough to receive numerous awards, both from critics and fans.

"rather than fix or reinvest any money into their IP"

Halo MCC not only got fixed, it got enhanced and continues receiving new content, now with mod support. Infinite received Halo's longest dev cycle. The Winter Update is two weeks away and Forge will finally be here. Late, and upsetting with split screen co-op cancelation, but not abandoned left broken.

Forza Motorsport - another franchise receiving its longest dev cycle. The Coalition and Gears another. The individual studios purchased aren't being forced to churn out filler years after purchase.

To suggest MS has neglected FPS games, especially after having purchased Bethesda and their gluttony of FPS IP, is absolutely absurd.

[Mr_cheese]

You've hit the nail on the head "purchased".

When you can't beat them, buy them.

[Tedakin]

Activision put themselves up or sale. Someone is buying them.

[-Foxtrot]

Me strolling in just to say “Let it go through just give Sony Crash and Spyro”

[purple101]

I like your style.

[Eonjay]

I play Call of Duty. Not all 100 million PlayStation gamers only want to exclusively play platformers from the 90s. You are so selfish if you can't see the rest of the world for your own desires. Gamers are regular normal people not just folks stuck in the last century.

[-Foxtrot]

Dude...chill

How is that selfish?

I don't give a shit about Call of Duty here because I know there's more chance of them making it multiplatform with a huge franchise than something smaller like platformers.

[shinoff2183]

And due to this alot of aaa games have been trash because they cater to this younger crowd. Square enix has admitted to this

[Orchard]

I feel sorry for whoever has to read that inbox, it's going to be filled with so much fanboy nonsense from both sides. Basically a waste of time.

[InUrFoxHole]

Lol for sure

[darkrider]

The same fanboy here.... Saying that buying the biggest publisher around is nothing... With all the implications.... Tryng to spin to Sony... When Microsoft was the one that started with timed exclusives... And now saying it's bad. That's wasn't the only bad thing that Microsoft started. The list is huge. This is ok for Microsoft gamers because it's Microsoft buying them. If it was Sony... You think this means some kind of victory. It's just that. Taking 3rd party games from the biggest buyers. Nothing more. Desperate move to try and get subcribers for GP...

[Orchard]

Since when was growing your business a desperate move? Every business wants to do that.

Let's not pretend that Sony wouldn't buy up CoD if they could afford it - they've been paying for exclusive COD content, gamemodes etc for years.

[lodossrage]

@Orchard

Growing your business isn't a desperate move. Trying to buy out an industry because you've shown over the course of the years you can't compete is.

Hell, everyone has paid for game exclusive content, MS included. It's not like that's a new thing in the industry. Nintendo and Sega did that all the time.

[Orchard]

@lodossrage The industry is far bigger than COD. You can't place much value in games like TLOU, GoW, Uncharted etc. if you think COD getting acquired is the end of the world.

Timed exclusives are indeed part of the industry, as are acquisitions - most of the studios that Sony & Microsoft have today were acquisitions.

[darthv72]

i see this like anyone who has a big gaming collection to sell. sure you can take the time to part it out and get top $$ for each piece. but not everyone wants to spend the time to do that. so they look at options that involve selling as a lot. You dont get nearly as much as if you part it out but you also dont have to do all that work and deal with people who may / not even follow through. Selling as a lot guarantees the other person gets even the stuff that would have been hard to flip by itself.

Activision could part out all of their development studios. And sony could have a better chance of picking up a couple in the process. but Activision doesnt want to do that as they know some may not be as attractive as others. so while certain ones may be first to go... the others would just sit there and maybe eventually be sold. OR... Activision sells the entirety as a lot and MS has the $$ to buy while Sony does not. That is what this really boils down to. Sony basically complaining that MS has first dibs because they have more $$.

If anyone has ever been in the position to buy out a lot of games for less than if they had to buy them one by one... you get the idea.

[lodossrage]

@Orchard

Not every acquisition is created equal.

And nobody every said MS owning COD is the end of the world. But this is about more than COD, just like you said. Activision in general is a juggernaut no matter how anyone thinks of them. COD, Warcraft, Diablo, etc. They make up a big part of gaming's profit.

Not to mention companies like Activision and Bethesda have LONG histories of being multiplatform which WILL change. THAT is part of why this is an issue. It's basically a way of buying the industry.

I had no issue with them buying guys like for example, Playground. Because even though they weren't exclusive, they DID work with MS the most and cultivated them. THAT is how you compete. Not buying well established companies that already have a major foothold.

The reason I NEVER complained about Sony buying Bungie or Microsoft buying Mojang is because BOTH of those contracts have clauses where they're allowed to stay multiplatform. Activision and Bethesda not having that is another problem in that.

[Orchard]

@lodossrage Indeed, not every one is created equal. But Activision want to sell, and MS were there willing to buy. I see nothing wrong with that.

We actually don't know what will happen with Bungie (or Mojang) in the future. Just because their games are cross-platform today doesn't mean they always will be. It's naive to assume that - there's already rumblings of Bungie working on a new PS exclusive.

It's business, if Sony could afford it, they would've bought Activision first. But they didn't, and MS did.

Ultimately, this deal will go through, and the industry (including Sony) will be fine.

[lodossrage]

@Orchard

Actually, we DO know.

Bungie and Mojang's purchases have the provision that they be allowed to continue to work with other platforms. It's not naive because those were clauses upon purchase.

Now if Bungie is Making a PS Exclusive as you say, that's Bungie's own choice. Because Bungie could easily sue for breach of contract if Sony forced them to do that.

And it's not about what anyone can afford. I'd say the same thing if Sony were the one's buying up long standing multiplatform companies.

As for the industry being fine, if this goes through, time will tell, but I doubt it. Not only because I personally think it's bad for the industry,

[JayRyu]

See Imalwaysright comment above. Sony has been paying for timed exclusive deals since the PS1. The first Tomb Raider was a times exclusive and was available to the Sega Saturn for a year after its release. Also Tobm Raider 2 and 3 were only on Playstation. The Tenchseties was another example as well. This was before xbox.

[Ryuk_2007]

"Microsoft just shot themselves in the foot.
I don't know how much the rest of you know about European culture (I'm an expert), but honor and shame are huge parts of it. It's not like it is in America where you can become successful by being an asshole. If you screw someone over in U.K, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.
What this means is the U.K public, after hearing about this, is not going to want to purchase COD for either system, nor will they purchase any of Activision games. This is HUGE. You can laugh all you want, but Microsoft has alienated an entire market with this move.
Microsoft, publicly apologize and cancel this acquisition or you can kiss your business goodbye".

[Orchard]

Lol that is one hell of a fantasy you have going on there. The British and Europeans are going to stop buying COD over some kind of honor system (that doesn't exist btw, at least not in the UK).

[Ryuk_2007]

https://knowyourmeme.com/me...

lol

[Orchard]

@ryuk Lol you got me, internet sarcasm is hard :P

[Ryuk_2007]

https://n4g.com/news/169541...

The biggest meltdown ever on n4g. Nothing will ever top that

[Knushwood Butt]

lol, I didn't know about this, and was thinking, 'What's he on about?'!

[XxINFERNUSxX]

I would give my opinion if I lived there. Fuck Blizzard, I don't approve of this deal. 😁

[Wrex369]

Console war BS aside this is pathetic coming from people who should be fully equipped to assert, back up, and fulfill their role as regulators.

[porkChop]

That's exactly what I was thinking. As regulators they're supposed to already know what's right or wrong for the industry and the public. 99% of the comments they get will be useless fanboy drivel from both sides.

[Hofstaderman]

Public participation is part of the process when a deal could potentially have such a massive impact on an industry. In other words it’s a legal box that has to be ticked in case any party cries foul that it was not done when the decision is rendered.

[StarkR3ality]

Ah shit, here we go again.

[jjb1981]

As long as any of these games can be played on PC, it doesn't matter.

[Wrex369]

It's funny because this is a genuinely correct take. No single platform should hold enough sway in it's exclusion of content to prevent two other publishers from merging. It shows that platforms infuence in the Industry more than the other two's potential for becoming a monopoly or anti competitive.

[jjb1981]

This is solely a fan boy war and the participants have absolutely zero impact on the outcome. They like to think they do by downvoting any rational thought into oblivion. MeH Ps5, MeH Xbox, ExClUsIvEs!

[TheColbertinator]

Read the comments on N4G to get an unbiased perspective

/s

[MrVux000]

Everyone is at least a little biased one way or another Colbertinator (...) that includes you.

[GrmpyolGamer]

The entire point of the CMA is to protect the consumer but it's clear the are bending over backwards to protect SIE. They are all corrupt and they all need to have there entire lives turned upside down to expose the corruption

[Azale]

Microsoft will bring the death of so many studios, not even sure i care at this point i've never really like the CoD series anyway. Hopefully they at least produce some good games in the coming years if the deal goes through. As funny as it would be, I can't quite imagine Activision devs creating games like Sea of Thieves. Also hope the recent layoffs doesn't become common place. IPs are one thing, but if the talent that makes those IPs leaves, then you've just got a husk without the substance to fill it.

[boing1]

Yeah, let's do a survey.

[Gamesual1]

This is a bit weird and absurd. Makes it look like they don’t know anything about the deal or the gaming industry. Imo the deal should be allowed because XBOX has been a distant third in gaming particularly after the 360 era which was ages ago.

[anast]

I really want anyone's opinion on: "Why is it impossible for a billion dollar gaming company to make a solid game?"

[Orchard]

Not sure who you're talking about there - but it isn't Microsoft - they had the top scoring exclusive for 2021. Infact, they were the only one of the big 3 to show up in the top 10 for the year.

[Nacho_Z]

Do you have a link to that top ten list?

[onisama]

This is so unprofessional if you cant handle it get some pros

[Tedakin]

I'm sure the opinions of fanboys will be fair and balanced.

[Tedakin]

Sony is going to rue the day they tried to get in the way of this buyout. MS has said repeatedly they're not taking games away. Sony is just sooo scared of COD on Gamepass because they may actually have to adapt their strategy. If this deal faulters, XBox has 70 billion dollars to play with and a chip on their shoulder. Not to mention Activision WANTS this deal to happen. I'm sure they'll be pretty pissed at Sony as well. Sony can kiss their COD marketing deals goodbye.