Activision (ABK)

What IP Should MS/ABK Bring Back?

  • Total voters
    15
www.reuters.com

Exclusive: Google says Microsoft cloud practices are anti-competitive

Alphabet's Google Cloud has accused Microsoft of anti-competitive cloud computing practices and criticised imminent deals with several European cloud vendors, saying these do not solve broader concerns about its licensing terms.
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com

www.reuters.com

Microsoft prepares to settle EU antitrust complaint on Cloud - Bloomberg News

U.S. tech giant Microsoft Corp is close to a settlement with a trio of cloud providers to suspend their antitrust complaints to the European Commission, Bloomberg news reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com
 
From the lawyer

—————————
This week the American Bar Association organised the Antitrust Law Spring Meeting 2023.

Today, Holly Vedova (the head of the FTC Bureau of Competition) was there and according to MLex she said that for the FTC litigating big cases is a top priority:

”We want to bring cases that have a big impact. A court decision can still help us as enforcers notwithstanding the results (in relation to the Meta-Within case)”.

She mentioned the MS-ABK as one of the pending merger cases that have been challenged by the FTC and that “It’s important to revitalise our litigation program”.

We’ll see what happens in April-May, but right now it doesn’t sound like the FTC is willing to settle anything :p
 
Doesn't really matter. The courts will give the FTC yet another loss and the deal can close while the court case is ongoing.
 
www.techradar.com

Xbox VP's goal to bring Activision Blizzard into a “culture of diversity” is an uphill battle

Culture wars
www.techradar.com www.techradar.com

I sat down with Sarah Bond, Corporate Vice President at Xbox, to get her take on what the acquisition might look like in practice.

Bond wanted to reassure PlayStation users that: "the games [they love] will continue to be there" after any potential merger, stating that Xbox is committed to creating "cross-platform experiences" which "show up across all screens." Bond continued by affirming that Microsoft is: "open to working with partners".

However, the prospect of a merger raises important cultural questions, too, especially in the shadow of the ongoing sexual harassment scandals at Blizzard. Bond was keen to emphasize "the core tenets of [Microsoft]'s culture: diversity, inclusion [and] being customer-centric."

Bond continued: "there's an opportunity to take the really creative teams [at Activision Blizzard] and give them the culture that we've found has been so successful in our own organization."

When I asked Bond whether or not Microsoft's plans to keep Kotick as CEO after the merger, she replied: "I think culture is universal, and it's not about any one person." While this is true to some degree, when the person in question is the CEO of a major gaming juggernaut, it is only right that his actions be appropriately scrutinized.
 
karmakid said:
www.techradar.com

Xbox VP's goal to bring Activision Blizzard into a “culture of diversity” is an uphill battle

Culture wars
www.techradar.com www.techradar.com

I sat down with Sarah Bond, Corporate Vice President at Xbox, to get her take on what the acquisition might look like in practice.

Bond wanted to reassure PlayStation users that: "the games [they love] will continue to be there" after any potential merger, stating that Xbox is committed to creating "cross-platform experiences" which "show up across all screens." Bond continued by affirming that Microsoft is: "open to working with partners".

However, the prospect of a merger raises important cultural questions, too, especially in the shadow of the ongoing sexual harassment scandals at Blizzard. Bond was keen to emphasize "the core tenets of [Microsoft]'s culture: diversity, inclusion [and] being customer-centric."

Bond continued: "there's an opportunity to take the really creative teams [at Activision Blizzard] and give them the culture that we've found has been so successful in our own organization."

When I asked Bond whether or not Microsoft's plans to keep Kotick as CEO after the merger, she replied: "I think culture is universal, and it's not about any one person." While this is true to some degree, when the person in question is the CEO of a major gaming juggernaut, it is only right that his actions be appropriately scrutinized.
Click to expand...
She likes to not answer the questions.
 
www.reuters.com

Apple wins appeal against UK's decision to investigate its mobile browser

Apple Inc won its appeal against the decision by Britain's antitrust regulator to launch an investigation into its mobile browser and cloud gaming services, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) ruled on Friday.
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com

——————

From the lawyer below, in relation to the link about

——————

Apple won its appeal against the CMA's decision to launch an investigation into its mobile browser and cloud gaming services.

The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) ruled that the CMA "erred in law" when it decided to open the market investigation with a delay of almost 6 months.

The CMA wants to appeal the decision, but I think that Apple is going to win this one. This is going to postpone the investigation (and possible remedies) on cloud gaming through the App Store for months or probably years.

Surprisingly, this could help MS in this case. Microsoft argues that one of the RCB (relevant customer benefits) of the deal is that they would create a new mobile game distribution platform (with all the new mobile content acquired) that would benefit consumers and developers.

The logical counter-argument from the CMA should have been that they were already working on it (making the mobile market more competitive) through the market investigation.

But now, any actions from the CMA on the mobile market could get delayed for months or maybe even years. Therefore, the new mobile game platform promised by MS if the deal goes through could gain more weight as a relevant customer benefit.

The beauty and complexity of Law.
 
From the lawyer

——————

THE LAST 15 DAYS

- March 16th: MS officially offered remedies to the EC, making ABK's catalog of games, including Call of Duty, available to rival cloud gaming services. There are no remedies regarding console and PC OS markets. Second update about the topic.

- March 16th: New provisional deadline for the decision from the EC, May 22nd 2023.

- March 16th: The CMA published 9 responses to the provisional findings, MS, ABK, Sony and 6 market participants.

- March 17th: The lawsuit from gamers has been dismissed and they'll have to redraft the complaint.

- March 21st: the CMA published a supplemental response from MS to the remedies notice.

- March 24th: The CMA modified the original provisional findings and dropped the concerns about the console market.

- March 28th: The Japan Fair Trade Commission approved the acquisition.

NEXT KEY DATES:

- Early April 2023: meetings and discussions with the CMA regarding the remedies working paper.

- Early April 2023: the EC will assess the market test conducted for the remedies proposed by MS.

- April 10th 2023: the Canada Competition Bureau will update the list of merger reviews completed during the previous month (probably nothing will come out of it, but my guess is that sooner rather than later there will be a decision).

- April 18th 2023: second extension of the original outside date. If MS quits by that date they have to pay a termination fee of $2,500,000,000; if they don't, the outside date gets extended until July 18th 2023.

- April 26th 2023: final report and remedies from the CMA.

- April 28th 2023: decision from New Zealand.

- April - May 2023: decision from the SAMR in China.

- May 22nd 2023: final decision from the EC.

- July 18th 2023: The end of the second extension and final outside date in the merger agreement. If MS quits by that date they have to pay a termination fee of $3,000,000,000; if they don't, they'll have to renegotiate the outside date with ABK.

- August 2nd 2023: beginning of the FTC in-house trial.

- Early 2024: decision from the FTC administrative law judge.

- Anything beyond that: unknown
 
www.wsj.com

Activision Deal Enters Bonus Round Phase

Microsoft’s acquisition looks more likely, while the Blizzard unit’s new “Diablo” game shapes up to be a surprise hit.
www.wsj.com www.wsj.com

“Matt Perault, policy analyst for New Street Research, says those rulings will likely factor heavily into the FTC's decision on how to proceed with its own case. He also says the odds are in Microsoft's favor, writing in a note Friday, "we think a settlement is more likely than a block because Microsoft can offer concessions that address many of regulators' core concerns."
 
From the lawyer

——————

The CMA published the responses to the addendum PF:

- Microsoft (6 pages)

The Provisional Findings Addendum confirms that Microsoft's incentives in relation to Activision content cannot be extrapolated from past conduct. The recognition that, in fact, Microsoft's past actions were not good evidence of any incentive to foreclose must also mean that the CMA should revisit its incentive analysis in relation to Theory of Harm 2 (cloud game streaming), which is focussed on qualitative evidence. At the same time, this should also cause the CMA to re-assess the current evidence available to it relating to Microsoft's incentives in relation to cloud game streaming.

The qualitative factors on which the CMA relies to question Microsoft's incentives to withhold more generally have been re-assessed and ultimately dismissed. The CMA has not undertaken any comparable exercise quantifying incentives in relation to Theory of Harm 2 as it did for Theory of Harm 1. The absence of that analysis does not somehow make the qualitative evidence in relation to Theory of Harm 2 stronger. Indeed, the absence of any, even broad, profitability analysis to support Theory of Harm 2 further undermines the conclusions. As has been explained to the CMA, [REDACTED].

The qualitative evidence available to the CMA in fact shows that Microsoft has entered into agreements with NVIDIA, Boosteroid and Ubitus, pursuant to which the distribution of Activision content on multiple cloud gaming services is provided for, should the Merger proceed. Not only does this show that Microsoft has no ability to withhold Activision content from rival cloud gaming services (given the presence of legally binding and enforceable agreements with these providers), it is also clear evidence of Microsoft's intention not to withhold Activision content from other cloud gaming services. Any analysis of both Microsoft's ability and incentive should be updated accordingly to reflect this development. Simply put, the CMA has found no incentive to withhold Activision content in relation to console, and the evidence shows it should reach the same conclusion in relation to cloud game streaming.

- Sony (10 pages)

The CMA's reversal of its position on its consoles theory of harm is surprising, unprecedented, and irrational.

The Addendum takes a diametrically opposite approach and focuses almost exclusively on a single economic model on which it places "significantly more weight" than other available evidence.

In conclusion, SIE respectfully submits that the Addendum does not justify the CMA's U-turn on the consoles theory of harm. The revised LTV model is vitiated by errors that bias the model to finding no incentive to Microsoft to foreclose. The Addendum jettisons, without sound reason, the PFs' thorough analysis of other evidence establishing Microsoft's incentives. And the Addendum's partial foreclosure discussion is based on pure speculation, rather than evidence. To reach a robust decision, the CMA should revisit its analysis of Microsoft's incentives and partial foreclosure, correcting for the errors identified in this paper.

- Joost Rietveld, Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship UCL School of Management, in London (23 pages)

Disclaimer and disclosure: This submission was prepared after the CMA announced it would narrow the scope of its investigation to cloud gaming. Given the very short timeframe to prepare the submission it might contain some errors, all of which are my own. I am involved as an advisor or expert witness in a couple of gaming- related matters, including a recent consultancy role with Microsoft Corporation. This submission, however, was not commissioned or influenced by Microsoft in any way. All views expressed here are my own.

Cloud Gaming Is Not A Distinct Market

A Typology of Cloud Gaming Services and What It Means for Microsoft's Proposed Acquisition of Activision Blizzard

There exists significant ambiguity as to whether cloud gaming should be considered a distinct market or not. The CMA's final decision on whether to block or clear Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard hinges in large part on this very question. Here, I have put forward the argument that we cannot combine all cloud gaming services into a single, clearly defined market definition. Rather, we can identify four types of gaming services that each use and rely on cloud streaming technology in different ways.

Microsoft's Game Pass offers cloud streaming as a feature; cloud gaming is an ingredient to a much broader value proposition that also includes natively run games as well as other services. Cloud-gaming-as- a-feature services arguably do not compete against cloud-gaming-as-a-complement (e.g., NVIDIA's GeForce Now, Boosteroid) and cloud-gaming-as-an-input services (e.g., Ubitus, GameStream) due to their more specialized offerings and differences in target customers. Microsoft arguably does compete against cloud-gaming-as-a-platform services such as Amazon's Luna and Blacknut—though not so much because they both stream games from the cloud, but rather because they both provide consumer-facing video game distribution platforms to overlapping customer bases.

To date, however, Activision Blizzard has not released any of its internally-developed video games on any of the cloud-gaming-as-a- platform services. Moreover, several cloud-gaming-as-a-platform services have ceased operations as this type of service has generally struggled to gain traction with consumers.

Consumers' willingness-to-pay for standalone cloud gaming services apparently is low and this is perhaps the strongest indication that cloud gaming should not be considered a distinct market: Cloud streaming is a potentially promising distribution method that will very likely continue to be used and relied upon to various extents by different companies with different offerings aimed at a diverse set of customers that can be both end users and business-to- business customers.

It behooves the CMA—and other agencies—to view it as such.
—————————

It sounds like Sony's survey about the number of Playstation users (in general) that would switch to Xbox due to COD being exclusive was around 24% (the figure from the CMA's survey) | Page 5

First, SIE's ordinary course survey, which the CMA has on file, found that [REDACTED]% of all PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5 owners would [REDACTED] to switch to an Xbox Series X/S [REDACTED]. This figure applied to all gamers, not just highly engaged Call of Duty gamers; the fact the switching figure was so close to the CMA's consumer survey for highly-engaged Call of Duty users indicates that the Addendum's decision to discount switching from the less than 10 hour and $100 cohort entirely is an extreme assumption that biases the analysis in favour of finding no incentive to foreclose.

Minecraft (early access) was announced for Chrome OS just 3 weeks ago (March 15th 2023). The ABK acquisition was probably the reason, because Sony says this about Minecraft in the Addendum PF | Page 6

Third, Microsoft has nonetheless deployed Minecraft exclusivity where it suits its strategic interests. In particular, Microsoft has blocked Chrome OS's access to Minecraft's consumer edition, instead making available only Minecraft: Education Edition, a version intended for students and teachers (not consumers). This evidences Microsoft's intentions to withdraw games from rival platforms when it serves its goals of dominance – be it in operating systems, consoles, multi-game subscription services, or cloud gaming.
 


Let's get the Microsoft takeover question out of the way first, shall we?

When asked about the proposed acquisition – and indeed Microsoft's desire to open its own app store – King's Candy Crush general manager Todd Green told us:

"We continue to focus on King and our business, but what I can say is that King is excited about the possibilities the merger could bring."

"Microsoft has said that an important part of the deal is their ability to expand into the mobile space. We're thrilled that King could be a part of that potential future although we continue to operate as two separate companies for now."
 
CMA was already aware and have said MS didn't go against its word as they clearly said they wouldn't take games already out or announced away from PS.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back