Microsoft is trying to acquire Activision Blizzard (UPDATE: CMA says NO!).

[Giddas]

22 minutes ago, Stanley said:

A catalogue of games previously unavailable on their console. I see it as a win win, Microsoft gets their deal and increases their subscription base, Nintendo sells more Switch’s off the back of it. 

 

Do you really think many people will buy a switch to stream game pass? 

[rafaqat]

1 minute ago, Giddas said:

 

Do you really think many people will buy a switch to stream game pass? 

 

Maybe it might be seen as a source to carry people through any dry spells in the release schedule for Nintendo? 

We know that third parties are the first to run when Nintendo consoles don't sell. This could be a safety blanket. Maybe.

 

[Uzi]

I'm sure the selling point of streaming an online multiplayer twitch shooter where you'd want input and display latency as low as possible is a huge one! 

[Stanley]

40 minutes ago, Giddas said:

 

Do you really think many people will buy a switch to stream game pass? 

Possibly? 

[Stanley]

40 minutes ago, Uzi said:

I'm sure the selling point of streaming an online multiplayer twitch shooter where you'd want input and display latency as low as possible is a huge one! 

Lag would be reduced client side for multiplayer though, that was a big selling point for Stadia. 
 

I’ve used Xcloud for multiple games including Halo and Fortnite and it’s fine, not perfect but it’s improving all the time. 

[HarMGM]

1 hour ago, Uzi said:

I'm sure the selling point of streaming an online multiplayer twitch shooter where you'd want input and display latency as low as possible is a huge one! 

There were plenty of people who downloaded and paid for Apex Legends, Fortnite and Overwatch on Switch despite the input lag and display latency. The idea that there isn't a market for these types of shooters despite the Switch's heavy technical drawbacks or cloud issues is a bit out of date.

[MidWalian]

Microsoft continues to try and control the narrative.

 

[JPL]

3 minutes ago, MidWalian said:

Microsoft continues to try and control the narrative.

 

What do you mean? Aren’t they supposed to talk to the press about it?

[thesnwmn]

Just now, JPL said:

What do you mean? Aren’t they supposed to talk to the press about it?

 

No way! How dare they talk about their acquisition! Why haven't they run off with their tail between their legs yet?

 

Next up in shocking developments... "Sony continues to try to block Microsoft Activision merger".

[Giddas]

I hope there's a bulletpoint on their support for unionization

[MidWalian]

One of the main bits is that they don't want to break shit up to please the regulators. 

 

[bear]

https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/21/23608930/microsoft-nvidia-geforce-now-xbox-games-announcement

 

 

Quote

Microsoft is bringing its Xbox PC games to Nvidia’s GeForce Now cloud gaming service. Speaking at a press conference in Brussels today, Microsoft president Brad Smith announced the news as it seeks to convince EU regulators to approve its proposed Activision Blizzard acquisition.

 

Quote

“Microsoft will be bringing its Xbox games that play on PCs to Nvidia’s GeForce Now cloud gaming service,” said Smith in a press conference attended by The Verge. “We will also bring all of Activision Blizzard’s titles including Call of Duty to GeForce Now.

Microsoft and NVIDIA will begin work immediately to integrate Xbox PC games into GeForce NOW, so that GeForce NOW members can stream PC games they buy in the Windows Store, including third-party partner titles where the publisher has granted streaming rights to NVIDIA. Xbox PC games currently available in third-party stores like Steam or Epic Games Store will also be able to be streamed through GeForce NOW.

 

That's surprising. It also means that the technically best streaming version of the likes of Forza will be on a third party service not MS's own offering. That's a bit weird. 

[MidWalian]

Also via Christopher Dring:

Quote

Smith also revealed that in Europe, Xbox has 20% of the console market vs Sony's 80%. That number is 70/30 globally. In Japan, it is 96/4.

 

Suspect these percentages include last gen consoles but I do like how Nintendo appears in some arguments and not others like a whac-a-mole.

[JPL]

31 minutes ago, MidWalian said:

Also via Christopher Dring:

 

Suspect these percentages include last gen consoles but I do like how Nintendo appears in some arguments and not others like a whac-a-mole.

Whichever way you look at it, it makes you feel for poor Sony though. How will they ever survive?

[Sarlaccfood]

I do find the 10 year pinky swear thing quite funny because aren’t you essentially confirming that in 10 years time you will be making it all exclusive?

 

Like, does the CMA or whoever only have a remit over the immediate future? I would have thought long term market health is even more of a priority than the short term for them. Especially when, even if you pulled CoD tomorrow, Sony will be fine this gen. At this point it’s the next round of console buying that they realistically could get hosed without CoD.

[bear]

By the time these ten year deals are finished any competitor will have had over eleven years to react to the news of MS buying Activision and the potential loss of Call of Duty. How much more time should they be given? 

[Super Craig]

Will Sony be allowed to complain if Microsoft try and buy EA as well?

[Alex W.]

2 minutes ago, bear said:

By the time these ten year deals are finished any competitor will have had over eleven years to react to the news of MS buying Activision and the potential loss of Call of Duty. How much more time should they be given? 

 

Yeah the point of the CMA isn't micromanage the markets in perpetuity, on a long enough time scale it's not the same market. It's like how Microsoft is no longer in quite as much trouble over bundling its apps, we're no longer in the same browser market.

[Alex W.]

2 minutes ago, Super Craig said:

Will Sony be allowed to complain if Microsoft try and buy EA as well?

[Giddas]

17 hours ago, JPL said:

Whichever way you look at it, it makes you feel for poor Sony though. How will they ever survive?

 

Save us Microsoft!

[Strafe]

18 hours ago, JPL said:

What do you mean? Aren’t they supposed to talk to the press about it?

No, he means that as MS are doing conferences and inviting the press they can send their story out to everyone and be on top of it. That’s controlling the narrative, especially when there isn’t (afaik) a Sony conference inviting press to tell them how bad they think the deal is.

[Strafe]

23 hours ago, Giddas said:

 

Do you really think many people will buy a switch to stream game pass? 

Probably not that many but it will sway some. You won’t be able to play Nintendo games on an Xbox for example.

 

The main thing is that there are about 110 million switches already in circulation and I would strongly suspect that Nintendo will get a cut (30% is standard, possibly lower) from any gamepass sign ups made on a switch. Maybe even a smaller % for any gamepass streaming on switch signed up for elsewhere, too.

[Strafe]

Also, gamepass on switch must surely mean that the Switch 2 or whatever it’s called will at least have analogue triggers. Maybe.

[MidWalian]

It has since been clarified that the Nintendo deal was about Call of Duty, not other Xbox games. Nvidia is for both.

 

Anyway, pacman pie! 

 

[thesnwmn]

10 minutes ago, Strafe said:

No, he means that as MS are doing conferences and inviting the press they can send their story out to everyone and be on top of it. That’s controlling the narrative, especially when there isn’t (afaik) a Sony conference inviting press to tell them how bad they think the deal is.

 

I'll remember this when watching the State of Play tomorrow. Must be worried about Sony "controlling the narrative". Only independent outlets can now make public announcements or conferences?

[rgraves]

And the narrative isn't going the way they want - Eurogamer apparently seem to think that Sony are the ones who get to OK the deal - it's not the authorities oh no, MS need to get Sony on-board - it's Sony who get to decide:

 

https://www.eurogamer.net/without-sony-on-board-microsofts-dual-announcements-today-felt-like-a-sandwich-without-the-filling

 

Quote

But even as the Microsoft exec waved his piece of A4 aloft, Sony's disagreement over the deal remained a major sticking point in getting the acquisition past regulators here in Europe, in the UK, and in the US.

 

[PaB]

23 minutes ago, MidWalian said:

It has since been clarified that the Nintendo deal was about Call of Duty, not other Xbox games. Nvidia is for both.

 

Anyway, pacman pie! 

 

Ignoring all other platforms . That’s amazing 

 

but yeah the deal was never going to be full gamepass on switch.

 

although interesting that cod can be carved out for special treatment when it suits. 

[thesnwmn]

It's a tricky spot. At what point is the regulator just asking Sony if it's okay? At what point does their response become nothing but spite (for want of a better word). Obviously they don't want the deal to happen. That's okay. And maybe it shouldn't. But the regulators job is to protect the public really, not Sony specifically.

[Strafe]

24 minutes ago, thesnwmn said:

 

I'll remember this when watching the State of Play tomorrow. Must be worried about Sony "controlling the narrative". Only independent outlets can now make public announcements or conferences?

That’s not where you’d use the term, it’s generally referenced in situations where you have 2 or more sides of competing ideals (Like MS vs Sony/Regulators).

 

You can take it as ““telling it your way, before someone else gets to tell it — and possibly tell it better — their way”.

[rgraves]

2 minutes ago, PaB said:

although interesting that cod can be carved out for special treatment when it suits. 

 

What else does Acti have that's not already on Switch?