It will take some time. Maybe towards the mid/end September perhaps. I still think things can be wrapped up by the end of the year but I’m quite sure that the major organizations(China, EU, FTC) will take their time.
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Something really caught my attention in the last article regarding current situations about the acquisition: https://pro.politico.eu/news/152449
“Competitors have voiced concerns over Microsoft potentially restricting access to some of Activision’s titles — such as Call of Duty — for rival subscription gaming services if the deal is approved.”
Don’t know if it necessarily means SONY is one of those complaining but what if other big tech such as Amazon or Google are doing it? Don’t’ know if it matters that much in the grand scheme of things though. Same situations happened with some M&A from the past (I guess it depends in how MS “tackles” it?)
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Thanks as always hex!! yeah, from the “big 4” there’s only China left to say something. In that POLOTICO article it is also stated that Brazil regulators started looking at the deal some days ago.
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Imagine Sony being worried about restricting access of games for a subscription service
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MAYBE??? I don’t think it would come to the case of “MS won’t allow other streaming services” but more are they willing to pay what MS asks. I know Bethesda has some stuff in PS+, Stadia is dead already and Luna hasn’t gather any worthy attention since launch. It’s all about money for now and I quite sure that MS will play fair for now. Not to mentioned that xCloud has been the only streaming service to be successful as of now.
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Well it would be really against just about every other form of media subscription service. Theres huge precedence all the way back to radio and cable.
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Yeah that’s why I found it interesting. Obviously they could change their mind at any time, but I was under the impression that SONY was “ok” with the acquisition (although with grinding teeth) back in February when the deal was announced and Statements from both parties started coming and blablabla…
Again SONY could be one of those complaining (and maybe is the only one lol) but I was thinking…what if it were other Big techs making sure MS won’t get enough “power” in the entertaining sector? Like if the deal goes through, MS will have under its pocket some of the biggest IP in that sector and as we all know gaming generates more money than music, movies and sports (I think even combined!).Satya has stated multiple times how important is their gaming division to their metaverse’s future.
So what if…these are MS’s biggest competitors trying to stop them from getting a big foothoold ahead of them in the metaverse space (I don’t know how that will look, but from a quick search you can see that entertaimen will play a big role in that) and are just using their small gaming subscriptions as an excuse to complain?
Summary
JESUCRISTO I FELT INSPIRED!!
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Thanks for the reply. I’m not too sure what are the dynamics between Sony and MS or any merger vs their competition but if Sony were to be pushing their agenda against MS I will for sure know that MS won’t be liking it much and knowing that they have infinite money at their disposal I could see them slapping back harder. I think Brad Smith has this merger under control and don’t expect anything major to occur aside from maybe long periods for investigations.
I wonder if this is just them going off what Jim said back when it got announced, with them being worried COD being exclusive and him and Phil having talks over the phone. This is one sure way to spice up your article.
Microsoft has so much to show about other companies doing this exact same thing that these companies might want to keep quiet, Google, Apple and Sony being the big 3.
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Lmao yes, Google and Apple worked hard to keep away MS from the smartphone market, and Sony from console gaming with recent evidence. MS previously also worked to monopolize the PC market or at least parts of it but they were sued and lost for it. I don’t know how Apple and Google keep evading being sued even harder than that.
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Microsoft
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Aside I find it funny imagining Sony asking Microsoft to put COD in PS+, especially considering that COD never came to Game Pass while it was on PS+ multiple times. I believe that it is more about “if they disable COD servers for Playstation” and stuff like this.
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I still think PS will only get CoD that they are contractually abliged to get, and any F2P title such as warzone 2.
PS can get all cods and other exclusives like Starfield if GamePass app can be added to Playstation store, pretty simple.
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When Amazon eventually make Luna free as part of Prime, just like they did with Prime Video it will be huge.
They would technically become one of the largest game subscription services overnight, especially when you consider that Amazon Prime has 200+ million users.
Yeah… expecting Destiny 2 expansions back on Game Pass any day now.
Except base Luna service is very limited in terms of blockbusters, don’t think it would attract too much attention imo. The cloud streaming wars, just like with video content, will be fought on content availability, and with no exclusivity Amazon will have a hard time. I think MS and Sony will dominate in that area.
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I agree it is all about content, the only thing is by including it in Prime (200 million+ users) they are going to reach alot of people, technically more than GamePass after ABK.
As one of the largest players they have sufficient funds to strike up third party deals or also buy publishers. For example they already have games like Resident Evil, FarCry 6, Devil May Cry 5 & Control etc.
The thing is that including Luna into Prime might have cumulative effect. Though I am not sure how good it works for Prime Video - granted their charts always include Prime when compare service.
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That Politico article is a real humdinger…esp. the part highlighting the sub. services…
It’s ridiculous and makes me roll my eyes…NONE of these games were coming to GP, PS Extra, or any other sub service day 1 (or maybe ever for that matter) outside of a deal like this…
It’s nonsense…a lot of “well what if we wanted to” damn well knowing it would never happen.
If that’s the case, I damn well expect Destiny 2 and everything with it to be on GP again…oh wait…
To be fair we can probably expect the people who are looking at the deal to not know much about how the gaming industry works that’s why they’ll fully look into it and ask everyone in the industry what they think to gauge if it’s bad or not. It’s obvious some companies wouldn’t want this to happen so they’ll probably try stop it or put some sort of road blocks in the way to make it harder but it will be up to Microsoft to prove why those issues are wrong or unwarranted by doing things like the unions and saying the COD games won’t go exclusive, it’s like they knew what was going to come up as if they thought of it already. 