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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

#101

Post by COGlory »

snowski3 wrote: post #99
COGlory wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

It is in the UK though, which is where the CMA operates

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

#102

Post by manuelabeledo »

snowski3 wrote: post #99
COGlory wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

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

No, it's not. This is the actual quote from the report:

> In terms of latency, some providers noted that they have already successfully streamed graphically complex games, such as CoD, with good results in terms of gameplay.

Which is accurate, e.g. Doom Eternal.

> XCloud is not available in most markets that Gamepass is present.

It's available in the UK, which is the domain of the CMA. Any other country is irrelevant to the discussion.

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

#103

Post by deelowe »

judge2020 wrote: post #72
capableweb wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you actually read the report that the CMA released? They are not basing the block on some "maybe" future, but on current reality. > Microsoft already accounts for an estimated 60-70% of global cloud gaming services and has other important strengths in cloud gaming from owning Xbox, the leading PC operating system (Windows) and a global cloud computing infrastructure (Azure and Xbox Cloud Gaming). Microsoft alread…

> 60-70% of global cloud gaming services Their point is that cloud gaming is likely way less than 1%, maybe even 0.01% of any gaming activity. The cloud gaming experience still isn't 100% there in terms of latency, so it only makes sense to play single player games, and then most people who have an xbox just use their existing hardware rather than pay Microsoft to play it remotely.

In this case cloud gaming is all of game pass, not just streaming.

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

#104

Post by Karunamon »

qwytw wrote: post #64
capableweb wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. It's also incredibly irrelevant, Google is not the ones being investigated here, and Stadia has also been shut down so it's not relevant at all how much better or worse it is. The question is not which platform is better or worse, but if Microso…

Is is Microsoft's fault that they don't have any competent competition? It's not like they somehow squeezed Stadia out of the market...

No, but that's not the regulator's problem either. It's not as if there is some sacrosanct right for companies to merge that is being abrogated. The entire existence of a company is at the pleasure of government.

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

#105

Post by manuelabeledo »

This is what it says in the report about cloud gaming:

> In relation to cloud gaming services, Microsoft has a combination of assets that we consider is difficult for other cloud gaming service providers to match. By owning Windows, the OS for which the vast majority of PC games are designed, Microsoft could stream games from Windows servers without having to pay a Windows licensing fee or adapt games designed for Windows to an alternative OS. By having Xbox Cloud Gaming and Azure, Microsoft has both a short-term and a longer-term solution to host cloud gaming, leveraging its large and well distributed global cloud infrastructure to stream its games without having to pay a fee to third-party cloud platforms. And by having an existing console ecosystem, Microsoft has a range of popular games that it can offer. As such, we consider that Microsoft has a strong position in cloud gaming services and will remain an important competitor as the market expands and evolves.

Essentially, they have a larger foothold in cloud gaming than any other competitor, and by controlling the software and some of the most popular platforms for gaming, they have a vast advantage over other opponents to the merger, e.g. Sony.

Which makes sense. While I don't expect cloud gaming to overtake traditional local gaming in the short term, allowing Microsoft to buy some of the most popular franchises out there and the largest US publisher, may create an artificial behemoth in the field, impossible to overcome.

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

#106

Post by AshamedCaptain »

rvz wrote: post #21

The CMA has indeed done its job. Microsoft is just throwing a tantrum over the CMA in the UK having a backbone to see for what Microsoft really is doing and this horizontal integration of existing multi-billion dollar franchises is bad for gamers. Even the UK Government isn't buying into Microsoft's bullshit of bringing title like Call of Duty to Nintendo Switch just to close the deal. [0] Microsoft hasn't changed th…

> Microsoft hasn't changed their anti-competitive behaviour.

And the biggest evidence of that is that MS still uses their monopoly to step over Linux and other OSes at every chance:

> We found that the Microsoft Cloud Remedy had several shortcomings: [..] Microsoft would not have to supply Activision’s full range of games to providers that may decide to operate using a non-Windows PC operating system (eg Linux)

They literally would only allow competitors to gain access to Activision's catalogue if they promised to use it with Windows and only Windows. I'm sure Be and others are having flashbacks. I am, at least.

And the worst part is that the EC would have very likely bent over and accepted this. Now I will never know, since the UK rejecting it makes it toxic.

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

#107

Post by Aunche »

capableweb wrote: post #54
Aunche wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 th…

>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.

Sure. On the other hand, it could be useful to listen to Microsoft's perspective on being obstructive to business rather than accusing them of "whining" given that Europe lags behind in technological innovation despite being similarly well educated.

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

#108

Post by manuelabeledo »

snowski3 wrote: post #71
capableweb wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you actually read the report that the CMA released? They are not basing the block on some "maybe" future, but on current reality. > Microsoft already accounts for an estimated 60-70% of global cloud gaming services and has other important strengths in cloud gaming from owning Xbox, the leading PC operating system (Windows) and a global cloud computing infrastructure (Azure and Xbox Cloud Gaming). Microsoft alread…

This information is incorrect though. It suggests that everyone subscribing to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is doing so for cloud gaming, which is obviously nuts.

> It suggests that everyone subscribing to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is doing so for cloud gaming, which is obviously nuts.

It does not.

It says that Microsoft plans on using extremely popular content to boost their cloud platform. Not even Microsoft is denying that:

> Microsoft submitted that, given the five-year period captured by the LTV, any incremental growth of Game Pass is being captured in the LTV calculation.

And they admit that they will be doing it, so they will capture more cloud gaming market and eventually increase profits:

> On the other hand, CoD’s addition to Game Pass may cannibalise some of the B2P sales of CoD. In its valuation model, Microsoft estimated this cannibalisation to be []%, [].617 The fact that Microsoft is nonetheless adopting this strategy suggests that it expects it to be profitable in the long run. This would also apply to overall revenue from customers switching from PlayStation to Xbox.

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

#109

Post by manuelabeledo »

criley2 wrote: post #49

I think it's fair that Microsoft is upset that they cannot do what their competitors have already completed. If the UK proceeds with a mandatory breakup of Sony's holdings, I would then approve of how they're regulating the market. If they, however, allow one titan to build an unstoppable first-party monopoly but bar only some of the competition from catching up, then I have serious concerns and misgivings with the m…

> I think it's fair that Microsoft is upset that they cannot do what their competitors have already completed.

Microsoft buying Activision-Blizzard would create the second largest gaming company in the world by revenue.

In comparison, Sony's largest acquisition was Bungie, which was 30x smaller than Activision-Blizzard.

Also, the ruling specifically addresses cloud gaming, not consoles.

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

#110

Post by screye »

Using cloud gaming as an argument to block this merger, sets a dangerous precedent.

Effectively, CMA is dreaming a future where cloud gaming has taken over. It is passing a judgement based on where the industry could go, rather than where it is now. This allows a bureaucratic organizations to impede companies based on arbitrary & unsubstantiated fears.

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