Analytic Dreamz: Notorious Mass Effect - “MICROSOFT'S ACTIVISION DEAL HAS NOW REPORTEDLY BEEN APPROVED BY CHINA”

Episode Date: May 21, 2023

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/AnalyticThe $69 billion Xbox Activision deal buyout has reportedly been approved by China's regulatory body.According to DealReporter (via SeekingAlpha), China's State Administration for Market Regulation recently gave the deal its unconditional approval in a late-phase review, handing Microsoft and Activision another win on their volatile and uncertain path to closing the acquisition.The deal faced another significant setback last month when UK regulators formally moved to block, but soon after regained some momentum when it was approved by the European Union. Arguably its most significant hurdle will come later this year when the US Federal Trade Commission is set to begin hearings on its lawsuit seeking to stop the buyout due to anti-competition concerns.source: Microsoft's Activision deal has now reportedly been approved by China (yahoo.com)Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

In the latest development of the PlayStation in Xbox beef, which is really Microsoft versus Sony, you know, if we really want to get into the grand scheme of things, Microsoft just acquired Activision for $69 billion with the B. So this is definitely the epitome of a Blockbuster deal, and their bid to buy Activision was met with a lot of pushback, especially from PlayStation. I've never seen PlayStation act like this, and I felt like they were, throwing all of the exclusives under the bus because they was like if Activision

I know if Xbox gets Activision then competition is going to be thrown out the window and all the exclusives that PlayStation had I mean Insomniac Santa Monica I don't know who develops for the Horizon games or the is the last of

yeah the Last of Us game no Nottie Dog makes Last of Us I believe they was probably all looking all the developing studios was looking at Sony like, dang, so we just trashed to you, huh? Because Activision is the one company or the one developer that they did not want to see go exclusively to their competitor. But somehow, Microsoft pulled it off even after the CEO for EA

came out and said he wasn't too worried one way or another. So, like, of course, the CEO of a huge conglomerate, conglomerant like electronic arts is going to be like well we don't really care because you know we're basically Microsoft biggest partners so we don't care if they get Activision or not but now we're seeing that when they do acquire Activision the amount of money they pay to get Activision best believe some type of call of duty content is going to be exclusive for the Xbox and I think that's a testament to redfall I think that's a testament to what starfield I think that's what is. I think those are the two exclusives to Xbox.

I think those two games, especially Redfall, which the game is out right now, but is it really? Because it's just a buggy mess. I think once that game failed, I think it was from Bethesda. And we really have to start talking about Bethesda. The type of games that Bethesda puts out,

the development team needs to get fined, searched. There needs to be an investigation because as soon as that deal went through with Microsoft acquiring them, they just gave up on developing games and actually trying. They was just like, we got our bag,

we don't care what happens to the game. So they put out Redfall, buggy mess, doesn't even work. Just look it up. One of the worst launches I've ever seen since Cyberpunks, 277. And so now, that we're seeing Xbox acquire Activision,

I don't think Activision's going to go the same route because if you think about it, they just have way too many IPs that they need to make money. Not need, but they do make money off of to just mess up a good thing. So I don't think they'll let laziness get in the way of that.

Because, but there's the even before the acquisition, the Microsoft acquisition, they was going through the developer woes. You know, they, there wasn't the most consistent studio. So anyways, $69 billion is, you know, I don't need to say it, but, of course, it's a lot of money. And it shows the amount of hope that in faith, It really shows the amount of faith that Microsoft has in Activision. Because, of course, it has whatever.

And I mean, I don't know if I could say this about any other game. Call of Duty probably has been played by every gamer that's ever played games. I can't, I don't think I can say that about Mario with some of the big games. I don't even know if I can say that about Tetris. Like, Tetris? Not just like, I don't even know if I can say that about that. Like everybody who's a gamer has played Call of Duty at some point. And I don't know what happened, but that's just, it's like the McDonald's of gaming.

It's just, it has something for everybody. So anyways, yeah, it's been acquisition is one of the biggest acquisitions of all time, I believe. Let me see. I don't know if it's one of the biggest. I saw that somewhere, but I'm not seeing it here. So, of course, they had to get it approved because, you know, just like an anti-compete type of clause that PlayStation was trying to push. They was like, if they get Activision, we just can't compete no more.

Like, that's basically how they was whining. And the board looked at it. Let me see. The European Commission, the executive body for the 27 nation block gave its approval. After Microsoft agreed to guarantee for 10 years that gamers would be able to play Activision titles on cloud gaming services being developed by other companies. That's interesting. Such as Navidia.

That's very specific. Imagine it was like, oh, you need it. You said, Call of Duty needs to be accessible to other platforms. What about Navidia? It's open to the video. You know, buying the video, you could buy Collar Duty. You know, it's not just exclusive on Xbox. You can also play it.

That would be hilarious. Like, every other platform except for PlayStation. Like, you just know at some point, Xbox is going to try to pull a huge Xbox exclusive from the Caller Duty brand. Like, they're just going to have a Caller Duty game specifically for Xbox. Like, if you pay $69 billion, you should be at the time. do whatever you want with it so anyways um the european okay so also the european commission has required microsoft to license popular activation blizzard games automatically to competing cloud gaming

services this will apply globally and will empower millions of consumers worldwide to play these games on any device they choose so that's interesting so they say will not harm the constant market because Microsoft would not have an incentive to deny rivals such as Sony PlayStation access to Activision titles without sacrificing profit. Who cares about profit if it's exclusively on the title? Now, obviously, you wouldn't make as much money from Call of Duty if it's on one console compared to all of the consoles because it's like, you know, the more platforms you're on, the better. But if it's exclusively to you and it's not on another console, who's to say people won't start buying Xbox's instead of

PlayStation's because of that. I don't think they really, you know, the European Commission, the words they use it's not really giving me hope that Xbox won't try to pull a fast one over PlayStation. So the approval on the approval is a rare

occasion where European regulators appear to be more accommodating than the United States. For years, European antitrust regulators under something aggressively gone after big companies like Google issuing billion dollars of fines. Goodness, that's how you know you make a lot of money.

In this instance, United States is taking a tougher position, of course. And the Federal Trade Commission has made the challenging of mergers, a central part of the plan to rein in the tech giants. Because I guess technically Microsoft is a tech giant. That is kind of crazy. I forgot they even made tech, even though I'm using a Windows laptop currently. That is wild. All right.

Purchase of Activision, December, arguing that the deal would harm consumers and lure gamers away from rivals. Well, who would have thunk? So anyways, it went over European or Europe or just overseas. I don't know the proper term. My fault. But as far as America, I guess you still have to wait. Yeah, so the European market has approved it, but we still have to wait in America. And of course, you know, it's just simply for the fact that PlayStation is pushing back.

And I think it would hurt like competition. I mean, some people would say Spider-Man being exclusively on PlayStation will hurt consumers, but Sony's own Spider-Man forever. So it's not like Xbox's own Call of Duty forever. It's like if Colorado bought, you know, it's like if Microsoft bought Collar Duty way back in the day and then now it's starting to blow up. Like, if you don't know, Stan Lee was going bankrupt when he was making all the Marvel characters, and so he licensed them off to other companies.

and one of them he licensed off was the major one Sony and he gave them Spider-Man. So Spider-Man has, no, Sony has had Spider-Man for the longest. And just because Spider-Man's like been the hottest superhero ever, Stanley was going bankrupt. He needed money, sold it to Sony. And now Sony can do whatever they want with Spider-Man. So if that means making him exclusive on a console that they have been building for the past, like, forever, then that makes sense.

but Microsoft acquiring Activision, trying to make a Call of Duty exclusive off the bat, I don't think we'll go sit well with fans. So hopefully that makes sense. It's a real complicated thing when it comes to exclusives and just, you know, at the end of the day, exclusives only hurt the gamers because you would want all the games to be on every platform,

but that's just sadly not the case. Nintendo, they have their exclusives. I mean, we're seeing the biggest one right now with Zelda, Microsoft, they have their exclusives, Gears of War. I mean, I would say the most recent exclusive, but that's just atrocious disaster. Redfall, you know, that's just one of the worst games.

Like, one of the worst launches I've seen in a while. And then you see PlayStation, they ride in high because they have forbidden West, and then they had God of War of Ragnoroc. So I understand while PlayStation is whining, but at the end of the day, Microsoft had to even up to score at some point. So anyways, I click my link to you in my bio.

Let me know one of my social media. What do you think about Microsoft acquiring Activision for $69 billion with a B? And do you think that this will make Microsoft a monopoly, or do you think that Sony, aka PlayStation, can still compete?