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Ignore Microsoft’s whines about the Activision takeover. The CMA did its job

theguardian.com

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Re: Ignore Microsoft’s whines about the Activision takeover. The CMA did its job

#51

Post by Silhouette »

drumhead wrote: post #32

I think a lot of people are ignoring MS. It does seem more like an I'll judged emotional outburst than a reasoned reaction. The competition authority in the UK is well respected so their conclusion is going to be given great weight by the EU and the US. Given the EUs track record, they're likely to be stricter than the UK, so the CMA adjudication is a good forward indicator that the deal is basically dead.

The cheap shot from MS about the EU was particularly juvenile. They can't seriously expect a more generous hearing from the bloc that has repeatedly hit big US tech firms with regulations and disguised taxation over the past few years than from the relatively business-friendly UK. They're just hoping to put some kind of pressure on the government in the UK because Brexit makes comparisons between the business environments in the UK and EU a touchy subject right now.

Given that it wasn't even the UK government who made the call here that probably won't achieve much. Would the UK government really change the fundamental rules of the game to override the CMA just because the regulator did its job? Doesn't seem likely. Literally all of the commentary I've seen about this from any source not connected to Microsoft or Activision is taking the view that it was the right call by the regulator.

Re: Ignore Microsoft’s whines about the Activision takeover. The CMA did its job

#52

Post by etempleton »

mrkramer wrote: post #47
etempleton wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they could possibly say that they will move forward with the merger, but cease to publish or sell games in the UK, but I very much doubt they would. The UK is still too big / profitable of a market. As an aside, it is interesting to see how this merger is received in the tech space vs gaming space. Most folks in gaming seem to welcome the merger because Activision has long been anti-consumer / bad stewards of…

>I also think the CMAs rationale for their decision is bizarre and shows a lack of understanding of the space. They blocked the acquisition on a premise that cloud gaming will be huge in the future and that Microsoft might make Activision Blizzard games exclusive to their Xbox Cloud. Taking in consideration Microsoft's enormous comparative advantages like owning Xbox, Xbox Cloud, Game Pass, Windows, Microsoft Azure p…

The problem is by size Sony is larger, with more studios and more exclusives. Nintendo is also huge.

Cloud gaming has a lot of competition and they all are companies with deep pockets: Microsoft, Sony, Nvidia, Google, Amazon. They can afford to do what Microsoft is doing if they so choose. This isn’t some new paradigm. This is how this business is run. If it is not console exclusives it is platform exclusives. It is the only real differentiator.

Re: Ignore Microsoft’s whines about the Activision takeover. The CMA did its job

#53

Post by gruez »

doctor_eval wrote: post #42
daniel-s wrote: post #18

I don't mind the complaint about CMA being undemocratic because it's a council of unelected bureaucrats, it's just trash-talk from someone that didn't get what they wanted; to be expected. IMO the reason why this decision is really dumb is because the reason given was cloud gaming. I think that people are missing this. This isn't a market. Almost nobody plays on cloud gaming platforms, like Stadia which recently clos…

> I don't mind the complaint about CMA being undemocratic And anyway, who elected Microsoft?

>who elected Microsoft?

citizen: I want to paint my house blue

mayor: I unilaterally forbid you from doing that, on the grounds that blue houses look unsightly

citizen: that's undemocratic!

mayor: who elected you to decide painting your house blue?

Re: Ignore Microsoft’s whines about the Activision takeover. The CMA did its job

#54

Post by capableweb »

Aunche wrote: post #50
capableweb wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you as a consumer can purchase a service without any special insider agreements with the provider, it's a market already, no matter how small or big it is. And since Microsoft already has a estimated 60-70% market share of this existing market, making them have a bigger hold over the market will make it harder to others to enter it, and they'll potentially abuse their position.

Of course the size of the market matters. Just because you have a 100% monopoly on Uber for haircuts doesn't mean you have a particularly dangerous monopoly. People can continue to game on consoles and PC just fine.

Yeah, obviously it does matter if there is literally no competitors, but that's not the case here. There are competitors in the space already.

One major difference between how the US and Europe views monopolies is that most of Europe tries to prevent even the formation of them (exceptions apply), while the US tries to prevent "dangerous" monopolies, while allowing monopolies themselves.

It could be useful to shift the perspective if you're used to the US one, when looking at decisions made by European agencies like the CMA.

Re: Ignore Microsoft’s whines about the Activision takeover. The CMA did its job

#56

Post by mtlmtlmtlmtl »

doctor_eval wrote: post #42
daniel-s wrote: post #18

I don't mind the complaint about CMA being undemocratic because it's a council of unelected bureaucrats, it's just trash-talk from someone that didn't get what they wanted; to be expected. IMO the reason why this decision is really dumb is because the reason given was cloud gaming. I think that people are missing this. This isn't a market. Almost nobody plays on cloud gaming platforms, like Stadia which recently clos…

> I don't mind the complaint about CMA being undemocratic And anyway, who elected Microsoft?

IBM.

Re: Ignore Microsoft’s whines about the Activision takeover. The CMA did its job

#57

Post by jumpman_miya »

etempleton wrote: post #26
endisneigh wrote: post #8

What would happen if Activision is acquired anyway by Microsoft? Could they simply exist as two separate entities in the UK, and a unified entity elsewhere? With all of the repercussions that entails for the users? Or simply they exit the market in the UK?

I think they could possibly say that they will move forward with the merger, but cease to publish or sell games in the UK, but I very much doubt they would. The UK is still too big / profitable of a market. As an aside, it is interesting to see how this merger is received in the tech space vs gaming space. Most folks in gaming seem to welcome the merger because Activision has long been anti-consumer / bad stewards of…

Microsoft would sooner opt out of selling in the UK then they would China.

Re: Ignore Microsoft’s whines about the Activision takeover. The CMA did its job

#58

Post by hgsgm »

gruez wrote: post #53
doctor_eval wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't mind the complaint about CMA being undemocratic And anyway, who elected Microsoft?

>who elected Microsoft? citizen: I want to paint my house blue mayor: I unilaterally forbid you from doing that, on the grounds that blue houses look unsightly citizen: that's undemocratic! mayor: who elected you to decide painting your house blue?

Limited Liability Corporations aren't citizens. Satya Natella is welcome to take MS private as a sole proprietorship.

Re: Ignore Microsoft’s whines about the Activision takeover. The CMA did its job

#59

Post by snapcaster »

gruez wrote: post #53
doctor_eval wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't mind the complaint about CMA being undemocratic And anyway, who elected Microsoft?

>who elected Microsoft? citizen: I want to paint my house blue mayor: I unilaterally forbid you from doing that, on the grounds that blue houses look unsightly citizen: that's undemocratic! mayor: who elected you to decide painting your house blue?

Do you think this is a good analogy? You think we should have the same process for an individual painting their house and a multi-trillion dollar corporation attempting to dominate markets? Do you see any differences in the two situations?

Re: Ignore Microsoft’s whines about the Activision takeover. The CMA did its job

#60

Post by sofixa »

daniel-s wrote: post #18

I don't mind the complaint about CMA being undemocratic because it's a council of unelected bureaucrats, it's just trash-talk from someone that didn't get what they wanted; to be expected. IMO the reason why this decision is really dumb is because the reason given was cloud gaming. I think that people are missing this. This isn't a market. Almost nobody plays on cloud gaming platforms, like Stadia which recently clos…

> This isn't a market. Almost nobody plays on cloud gaming platforms, like Stadia which recently closed down, or similar.

It's a market. Google bungling Stadia doesn't make it any less of a market, or we wouldn't be seeing Microsoft, Nvidia and Amazon (to a much lesser extent) pouring money into it.

Regardless of your bubble, lots of people use cloud gaming services. There is no way to have concrete numbers, but the Stadia subreddit still has 110k subscribers months after the service shut down. That's not "almost nobody" on the dead service.

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