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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

#91

Post by etempleton »

mrkramer wrote: post #67
etempleton wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

But Microsoft has the upper hand in the cloud gaming industry according to CMA. Apparently Xbox Cloud has 60-70% of the market share. Activision Blizzard acquisition would only strengthen Microsoft's position and would not improve competition.

You are a subscriber to cloud gaming if you have GamePass, but I don’t think many actually use it, so to say they have such a huge advantage is an argument in either ignorance or bad faith.

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

#92

Post by COGlory »

snowski3 wrote: post #69

If you read the report then the CMA comes across terribly. They don't understand basic technical facts. Apparently a competitor to Microsoft told the CMA that they solved latency issues with cloud gaming by increasing GPU power. Someone should alert the nobel prize committee about conquering the speed of light. They make other bizarre claims like apparently everyone that subscribes to xbox game pass does so for cloud…

>If you read the report then the CMA comes across terribly. They don't understand basic technical facts. Apparently a competitor to Microsoft told the CMA that they solved latency issues with cloud gaming by increasing GPU power. Someone should alert the nobel prize committee about conquering the speed of light.

This is because input latency goes down if you run at a higher framerate. Nvidia worked on this and published some data on it. It's real.

>They make other bizarre claims like apparently everyone that subscribes to xbox game pass does so for cloud gaming.

Gamepass includes Xcloud. Not sure what your point is. CMA made a true statement.

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

#93

Post by davewritescode »

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…

> Most folks in gaming seem to welcome the merger because Activision has long been anti-consumer / bad stewards of game franchises, and many people feel positive about the direction of the Xbox division as of late.

Yes, my big hope here is selfishly that Microsoft is able to salvage what's left of Blizzard and Microsoft has been the most consumer friendly of the big 3 this last couple of generations.

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

#94

Post by mattferderer »

haunter wrote: post #22
nbevans wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does "cloud gaming" encompass things like Xbox Game Pass though? Subscription model with downloadable access to all games definitely feels cloudy to me.

No >The cloud allows UK gamers to avoid buying expensive gaming consoles and PCs and gives them much more flexibility and choice as to how they play. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/microsoft-activision-deal... YET they next sentence >Allowing Microsoft to take such a strong position in the cloud gaming market just as it begins to grow rapidly would risk undermining the innovation that is crucial to the developmen…

I haven't read anything that makes the CMA look good yet & I'm trying to be impartial.

If this is there definition of cloud gaming, how do phones come into play? They seem like a far bigger market that doesn't require additional hardware purchases specifically for gaming. You can hook them up to popular video game controllers & your TV. No latency issues, which Microsoft won't be fixing in cloud streaming type games without insane investments near users.

The article in the headline doesn't actually give any good reasons & I can't find any solid reasons by any of the people cheering on any Microsoft hate.

If you want to call Microsoft a monopoly & hate on them, there are tons of great & current examples but this just doesn't seem to be one. It's equivalent to blowing the whistle & calling a penalty on some random person for no reason because five plays earlier someone else on that team got away with one.

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

#95

Post by nightski »

sofixa wrote: post #63
haunter wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It did not sufficiently cover different cloud gaming service business models, including multigame subscription services. This is actually incredibly funny reading because Google Stadia was 100% worse than Xbox Cloud. You had to sub + pay for the game too. And some of them were exclusives too. Compared to that how Gamepass works in tandem with Xbox Cloud (you can play on PC, Xbox, and streaming) is day and night YET…

> You had to sub + pay for the game too. And some of them were exclusives too. It's showing how much Google failed with Stadia, people still don't know how the service worked. You paid for the games to stream them, and optionally there was a subscription for better quality and free games. Also you could link Ubisoft+ to stream their games for "free", and there were free to play games. And there were only time limited…

I mean paying for a game and then getting a low quality version of it without a sub isn't very compelling to a lot of PC gamers if I am being honest.

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

#96

Post by walthamstow »

Red_Leaves_Flyy wrote: post #40
dingledork69 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Direct democracy is not a good idea, unfortunately.

Citation?

Brexit and whichever is your least favourite California ballot proposition

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

#97

Post by etempleton »

dogma1138 wrote: post #89
etempleton wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sony has their own cloud infrastructure. They were incredibly early and bought the two largest startups in the space—Onlive and Gaikai. Sony could compete in the space, but their subscription is unappealing to consumers because it costs more and offers less. Google has their own infrastructure and Nvidia has their own as well. I assume Amazon has their own for Luna as well. And let’s not kid ourselves, no one is subs…

Sony doesn’t have anything close to the scale of Azure and they don’t have the rest of the business model as a backstop to cover the cost of their gaming services. Google doesn’t have a major gaming brand like Xbox and doesn’t own any publishers - Microsoft has Microsoft Studios and Zenimax already. NVIDIA same thing they have the hardware business on their side but they don’t have a cloud like Azure, GCP or AWS nor…

Yes, but others could do the same and will have to do the same if they want to get in on the business. It is not some insurmountable problem if Sony, Google, or Amazon wanted to get serious about cloud gaming. Microsoft is making the investment. It might not pay off. You can’t say something might be a monopoly one day. That is ludicrous, anything COULD be a monopoly one day.

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

#98

Post by izacus »

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?

What kind of mental model breakage made you put "a citizen" into a position of an unaccountable megacorporation in your analogy?

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

#99

Post by snowski3 »

COGlory wrote: post #92
snowski3 wrote: post #69

If you read the report then the CMA comes across terribly. They don't understand basic technical facts. Apparently a competitor to Microsoft told the CMA that they solved latency issues with cloud gaming by increasing GPU power. Someone should alert the nobel prize committee about conquering the speed of light. They make other bizarre claims like apparently everyone that subscribes to xbox game pass does so for cloud…

>If you read the report then the CMA comes across terribly. They don't understand basic technical facts. Apparently a competitor to Microsoft told the CMA that they solved latency issues with cloud gaming by increasing GPU power. Someone should alert the nobel prize committee about conquering the speed of light. This is because input latency goes down if you run at a higher framerate. Nvidia worked on this and publis…

Total input latency, not network latency. Referring to the issues with cloud gaming by discussing input latency is pretty spurious.

I'm sorry but no, this not correct. XCloud is not available in most markets that Gamepass is present.

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

#100

Post by gdsdfe »

this is honestly the most bizzare story in gaming ... first you have Sony that claims this acquisition will give MS an unfair advantage in cloud gaming yet they run all their cloud workloads on Azure, then you have the UK that agrees with Sony yet we all know they're just afraid that all the Activision players would leave their platform. And now people are acting like MS is the bad guy because what? they have money?
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