The UK’s CMA has expressed concern that Microsoft‘s Activision merger could “significantly weaken” PlayStation (Updated with lawyer breakdown)

[Legal]

How is this even legal. They can dictate what multi-platform developers do on other consoles?
This specific move, I can’t condone, no matter who does it.
And fukk ABK for signing that BS contract

That's the nature of the marketing deals Activision was looking for, though. Sony is the lead advertising partner, so Sony partners with them HEAVILY on ad buys and placement. Obviously I'm not on the inside, but it would likely be safe to assume that any CoD commercial you see that ends with PlayStation branding was either paid for or placed by Sony. In return, Sony asks for them to not put the game on Gamepass basically at least until the new CoD is in the promo cycle.

Honestly, it gives both sides a benefit. Don't make sure they're not blowing ad spend on something their chief competitor can say they're giving out for free on Gamepass, and Activision gets the dual benefit of making sure that release window sales number is juiced by everyone needing to come out of pocket, and honestly, most important for them, it protects the price of the game. At least as far as I can remember, Activision likes to keep the CoD games at full price as long as they can. These motherfukkers are still selling GHOSTS for full price right now. There's absolutely no reason someone who wants to buy an older CoD title should have to wait for a sale, but that's how solid their pricing is.

The funny thing is, this coming up now is really just shytty concern trolling from both sides of the argument. For how shytty he is as a person, Kotick was actually an incredible CEO form a coldly objective business standpoint, because realistically speaking, CoD wasn't going to end up on Gamepass unless something crazy like Microsoft buying the whole damn company happened. It goes against every single one of their business objectives to pass up sales on the new CoD, and they were able to take advantage of what would've been a basic ask from any company's legal team to likely get extra money out of Sony.

 

[The Mad Titan]

So you're admitting they both do similar shyt behind the scenes. The difference is you're gonna pretend that the parity clause is something sony demands to release on playstation, when in reality they're attached to marketing deals.

If they both do the same thing and Microsoft has tons more expendable income, why aren't they bagging the "big 3rd party games" like Sony and why are they missing out on exclusive content and deals?




And parity clauses aren't attached to anything specific, they can be as vague or in detail as needed.

Sony just takes advantage of it to lock out MS and manipulate the market

 

[MeachTheMonster]

None of this is new, it's just getting brought back up because people are butt hurt that the CMA are doing their jobs.

This is your excuse now??

“It’s not new”

Sony stans

And microsoft never released the terms of the deals they sign during that epic vs apple case, they just released the details of the revenue and profits they make.

You still making shyt up.

Microsoft didn’t leak them. Someone did.


So once more. You post proof of microsoft issuing similar contracts and signing similar deals.

You said they are doing it, you must have proof

 

[CoolinInTheCut]

 

[MeachTheMonster]

Post some old ass tweets that have nothing to do with the topic at hand brehs.

@5n0man i told you microsoft contracts leaked a while ago

Thanks for the assist @CoolinInTheCut

 

[CoolinInTheCut]

Post some old ass tweets that have nothing to do with the topic at hand brehs.

@5n0man i told you microsoft contracts leaked a while ago

Thanks for the assist @CoolinInTheCut

whats the topic at hand now? yall just keep changing topics whenever you hit a road block lol

 

[MeachTheMonster]

whats the topic at hand now? yall just keep changing topics whenever you hit a road block lol

Those tweets are from over a year ago

 

[CoolinInTheCut]

Those tweets are from over a year ago

still relevant.

 

[5n0man]

Post some old ass tweets that have nothing to do with the topic at hand brehs.

@5n0man i told you microsoft contracts leaked a while ago

Thanks for the assist @CoolinInTheCut

I was wrong about Microsoft contracts not leaking



But

So once more. You post proof of microsoft issuing similar contracts and signing similar deals.

You said they are doing it, you must have proof

That contract looks exactly like sony’s, so obviously they are signing similar deals and have the same requirements as sony, but yall been running with this narrative that sony pays to make games on xbox worse for months.

 

[MeachTheMonster]

still relevant.

No, it’s not. He’s talking about a “performance parity clause”

 

[Legal]

I was wrong about Microsoft contracts not leaking



But

That contract looks exactly like sony’s, so obviously they are signing similar deals and have the same requirements as sony, but yall been running with this narrative that sony pays to make games on xbox worse for months.

I'm not sure how this narrative got started. Why would either Microsoft or Sony put some shyt that could draw serious legal repercussions in plain contract writing?

 

[MeachTheMonster]

I was wrong about Microsoft contracts not leaking



But

That contract looks exactly like sony’s, so obviously they are signing similar deals and have the same requirements as sony, but yall been running with this narrative that sony pays to make games on xbox worse for months.

I didn’t say anything about sony making games worse on xbox.

A couple people tweeted that and it was promptly debunked.

It was actually Microsoft’s contracts that leaked first. Years ago in the X1 vs PS4 days when a couple games didn’t perform much better on PS4 someone posted that contract and claimed it was microsoft forcing it.

That was eventually debunked, then recently someone flipped it and claimed sony was doing it this gen.

As you see it was promptly debunked. Don’t know where you got the idea that people were running with it “for months”

But NONE of this has anything to do with what was leaked about Sonys contracts as it pertains to devs being forbidden from doing business with gamepass unless sony decides to let them. That’s a Sony exclusive

 

[The Mad Titan]

I was wrong about Microsoft contracts not leaking



But

That contract looks exactly like sony’s, so obviously they are signing similar deals and have the same requirements as sony, but yall been running with this narrative that sony pays to make games on xbox worse for months.

Nobody here is talking about games being worse, it's about games being locked out and tied up.

 

[Obreh Winfrey]

The stanning is reaching dizzying heights in here.

 

[5n0man]

Nobody here is talking about games being worse, it's about games being locked out and tied up.

The funny thing is, if anything it's the opposite and the PS5 version can't do 4k/60 fps with Ray tracing. And sony has a clause that doesn't allow for other versions to be "superior"