Microsoft to purchase Activision-Blizzard

[HomerJ]

The CMA has blocked it in the UK:

Microsoft and Activision Blizzard hit out as UK regulator blocks takeover

The maker of hit games Call of Duty and Candy Crush says "the UK is clearly closed for business".

www.bbc.co.uk

Here's the full press release from the CMA:

Microsoft / Activision deal prevented to protect innovation and choice in cloud gaming

The CMA has prevented Microsoft’s proposed purchase of Activision over concerns the deal would alter the future of the fast-growing cloud gaming market, leading to reduced innovation and less choice for UK gamers over the years to come.

www.gov.uk

Seems to be they have rejected it on the grounds of cloud gaming rather than console and PC games

well thats going to be interesting, bet microsoft will appeal this as a lot of moneys a stake

 

[SpyderTracks]

UK still has a block on it apparently, Microsoft are considering going ahead and pulling all Activision titles from the UK market!

Microsoft ‘could withdraw Activision from the UK’ to counter acquisition block, it’s claimed | VGC

Microsoft’s president is reportedly set to meet with government ministers next week…

www.videogameschronicle.com

 

[AccidentalDenz]

UK still has a block on it apparently, Microsoft are considering going ahead and pulling all Activision titles from the UK market!

Microsoft ‘could withdraw Activision from the UK’ to counter acquisition block, it’s claimed | VGC

Microsoft’s president is reportedly set to meet with government ministers next week…

www.videogameschronicle.com

Call of Duty (being pretty much the only thing Activision bothers with these days) either not being sold in the UK, or sold through a distributor won't go down well. Still here we are. Something like this was always likely once other countries okayed the deal and we vetoed it.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Call of Duty (being pretty much the only thing Activision bothers with these days) either not being sold in the UK, or sold through a distributor won't go down well. Still here we are. Something like this was always likely once other countries okayed the deal and we vetoed it.

Call of Duty is one of THE esports titles, if it's pulled from UK, there will be uproar

 

[QH7]

They're being sued by the FTC in the US to block this purchase so are they going to threaten to remove the games in the US as well!
They're sabre rattling to force through the deal.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Whilst Call of Duty would be the big name to be lost from the Activision catalogue, there are other relatively big titles from Blizzard that would be lost: The Diablo Series (including the just released IV), Overwatch and, particularly, World of Warcraft which still has a pretty big playerbase.

I'm sure they will come up with a compromise to this...the government and microsoft will come up with something and then the government will pressure the CMA to agree to it. After all, the government won't be wanting to potentially lose hundreds of thousands (or millions) of votes because they would be blamed

WoW you're right, that has an extremely dedicated following, that would be a tragedy if UK and US players were locked out.

 

[Steveyg]

Genuinely what happens to games that are already purchased? I'm enjoying the hell outa D4 at the minute and taking it away would be like slapping the crack pipe outa an addicts face I just couldn't deal with that right now

 

[SpyderTracks]

Genuinely what happens to games that are already purchased? I'm enjoying the hell outa D4 at the minute and taking it away would be like slapping the crack pipe outa an addicts face I just couldn't deal with that right now

No idea. Surely they'd have to issue refunds at least a portion of the full cost? I don't see this happening though, it's such a major impact, AFAIK we've never faced anything like this before?

 

[QH7]

Genuinely what happens to games that are already purchased? I'm enjoying the hell outa D4 at the minute and taking it away would be like slapping the crack pipe outa an addicts face I just couldn't deal with that right now

They shouldn't be affected as they're purchased before the deal is closed. Although there is no guarantee.
They're just hoping the threat of this and the response of the gaming community shall allow them to pressure the government to intervene.

 

[AccidentalDenz]

Genuinely what happens to games that are already purchased?

As a previous long-time fan of Activision from the olden days where they bought up licences to pretty much everything going, then withdrew the games from sale once the licences expired, I suspect it'll depend on the nature of the games. For totally offline games, there will be no difference and the game will remain playable for anybody who buys the game before the game is withdrawn. Given how game publishers seem to like the always online thing recently, that raises a fun grey area where a game shouldn't be accessible in the UK, but will depend on how the servers are set up, and potentially even where they are.

Weird legal grey area incoming!

 

[Steveyg]

Having already bought it wouldn't usually be an issue but now that games are always online they could turn off the servers. Now I'd honestly most likely just get my parrot, eye patch and peg leg out and find it somewhere on the seas but I'd honestly rather pay when I really enjoy something

Be interesting to see how it shakes out but I'd say this is definitely Blizz leveraging the fanbase

 

[AccidentalDenz]

Having already bought it wouldn't usually be an issue but now that games are always online they could turn off the servers. Now I'd honestly most likely just get my parrot, eye patch and peg leg out and find it somewhere on the seas but I'd honestly rather pay when I really enjoy something

Be interesting to see how it shakes out but I'd say this is definitely Blizz leveraging the fanbase

Great minds!

 

[Steveyg]

Great minds!

Think sometimes

 

[SpyderTracks]

Legally, there would be nothing to stop them from simply removing all access to the games. Bear in mind, games "bought" digitally aren't "owned" in the same way that you own the game if you buy the disc (and I believe it is the same for all platforms, be it Microsoft, Steam, Epic etc), you are merely paying for access on the understanding (as generally outlined in the T&Cs) that they can revoke your access at any time, including removing the game completely from the system. This is one of the biggest negatives with digital gaming vs discs

Of course, from a marketing and financial standpoint, there is no way they would revoke access for millions of players, especially in the United States where they would spend the next 20 years tied up in lawsuits from people suing them for removing access. If they cannot get approval in the United States, then they will pull out of the deal, simple as that....whilst other markets are big, the United States is still their biggest and profitable market

It would be a disastrous move if they did though, people are already really unhappy with Blizz after the way they've moved to "mobile" games as some sort of AAA release, and generally given up on new IPs entirely.

 

[QH7]

Microsoft has won against the FTC in the US.

Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard

Microsoft can now go ahead and close its giant deal.

www.theverge.com

 

[HomerJ]

Having already bought it wouldn't usually be an issue but now that games are always online they could turn off the servers.

that really annoys me, for example hitman, no need for that to be always online and connected, its already been pirated so what are IO gaining other than annoying people.

 

[AccidentalDenz]

And so it's happened. Will be interesting going forward to see what happens about exclusives and all that fun stuff. Phil Spencer seems to be saying a lot of the right things:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1712816318460960859

 

[SpyderTracks]

 

[SpyderTracks]

With MS approach to multiplayer, I can see the Doom franchise either changing to a Quake reboot ie Doom but entirely online eSports, or them rebooting Quake as a separate franchise.

That’s the only title that concerns me out of the list.

I guess WoW is the most significant title really for its age and continued playerbase.

My other concern is that quite frankly, MS don’t have the greatest reputation in buying studios and retaining beloved franchises. There have been countless examples where they’ve killed the franchises and merged the underlying tech or IP into their own headline titles. That’s what I’m more concerned about, but I guess most of these titles are bigger than Microsoft’s existing catalogue.

 

[HomerJ]

i have reservations about this deal, I dont really like how things get concentrated, better to remain a variety of independent choice then everything owned by only a few corps.