Microsoft acquire Activision

I’ve ran both Sony and MS ecosystems for a good many years now, although this current gen has made me question whether to sell my Xbox. I have a reasonable gaming laptop but it wont keep up with more modern titles.

I have kept my Xbox basically in the hope Bethesda will release some top drawer content. For example a sequel to Prey, Elder Scrolls 6, a new Doom game etc etc. unfortunately the last couple of releases have been a bit poor and the news that Starfield will be locked to 30fps hasn’t done anything to help my growing feeling that MS have lost their way.

Will the acquisition of Activision present any issues for me? Probably not in reality but I don’t really agree with it. It does smack of desperation. I believe monopolies are demonstrably counterproductive to consumer choice, fair competition and quality.

Ultimately if MS throw enough money under the table to bent politicians via their well placed lobbyists, I have no doubt some sort of agreement will be made and a deal will be done.
 
Last edited:
McPhee said:
It would be funny if flying pigs suddenly rained from the sky. But that won't be happening either.

The CMA's opposition to the merger concerned cloud gaming. That is where the axe will fall. It's likely that Microsoft's cloud gaming offering in the UK will be gimped somehow. Or, if Microsoft are very, very lucky, the CMA change their stance and decide to accept a similar resolution to the Sony deal (i.e. a commitment to Activision Blizzard's games catalogue remaining on multiple cloud platforms for an agreed duration).

Personally, I'm expecting something like "xCloud" being restricted to just Xbox consoles in the UK, maybe with an option (or even a requirement) to license the underlying technology and games catalogue to a third party for use on other platforms (e.g. "BT Cloud Gaming, powered by Xbox").
Click to expand...

The rumours tonight suggest EE are looking to purchase the rights for "Cloud Streaming" Microsoft games in the UK.
 
chrismscotland said:
The rumours tonight suggest EE are looking to purchase the rights for "Cloud Streaming" Microsoft games in the UK.
Click to expand...

So basically BT then :p Honestly though, who else would it be?

Hopefully the sale is limited to other platforms, as I imagine streaming games to consoles will become a big feature over the next five years. See an ad, stream a demo. Buy a new game, stream it while it downloads. Invite a friend to join a game lobby, and the game will be streamed if no local copy exists. Stuff like that. It would be a huge shame for UK Xbox players if they have to miss out on that. Having to pay an extra subscription to stream games to your phone is less of a problem and unlikely to bother many.
 
Last edited:
McPhee said:
It would be funny if flying pigs suddenly rained from the sky. But that won't be happening either.

The CMA's opposition to the merger concerned cloud gaming. That is where the axe will fall. It's likely that Microsoft's cloud gaming offering in the UK will be gimped somehow. Or, if Microsoft are very, very lucky, the CMA change their stance and decide to accept a similar resolution to the Sony deal (i.e. a commitment to Activision Blizzard's games catalogue remaining on multiple cloud platforms for an agreed duration).

Personally, I'm expecting something like "xCloud" being restricted to just Xbox consoles in the UK, maybe with an option (or even a requirement) to license the underlying technology and games catalogue to a third party for use on other platforms (e.g. "BT Cloud Gaming, powered by Xbox").
Click to expand...


Personally I couldn't care less about cloud streaming; I've tried Xcloud, the gamepass cloud gaming thing, to play Skate 3 and found the latency to be horrible
 
BT are rolling out their ultra fast fibre (1GBps) so those latency issues will be a thing of the past for many. 5-10 years we’ll wonder what all the fuss was about. Like it or not it’s coming. Stadia, Luna, xCloud, it’s just the beginning.
 
Plainsong said:
BT are rolling out their ultra fast fibre (1GBps) so those latency issues will be a thing of the past for many. 5-10 years we’ll wonder what all the fuss was about. Like it or not it’s coming. Stadia, Luna, xCloud, it’s just the beginning.
Click to expand...

I have 8GB/s fibre and I have an average latency of 1ms, sometimes speedtests will show my latency as 0ms because they don't show decimals. And there is a Microsoft Azure datacentre in my city, and gamepass game streaming still has very noticeable latency.

The problem is not mine or anyone's else's connection, even if you have 1ms or 0ms like me that cannot overcome the real problem. The game emulation system itself and the Microsoft server itself is creating latency and more work needs to be done to improve latency on that side.
 
Last edited:
Grim5 said:
I have 8GB/s fibre and I have an average latency of 1ms, sometimes speedtests will show my latency as 0ms because they don't show decimals. And there is a Microsoft Azure datacentre in my city, and gamepass game streaming still has very noticeable latency.

The problem is not mine or anyone's else's connection, even if you have 1ms or 0ms like me that cannot overcome the real problem. The game emulation system itself and the Microsoft server itself is creating latency and more work needs to be done to improve latency on that side.
Click to expand...
This. Like you, I have an ultra fast fibre connection but latency is still a big problem with cloud gaming. I agree with Plainsong, cloud gaming will be a mainstream entity at some point, but I genuinely believe that's at least 10 yrs or more away. The infrastructure just isn't there to support it.
 
I have to admit I've only tried Streaming v Gamepass a few times and its always been crap, was much better with 1GB/s fibre but still not brilliant.
Personally I think we're years and years away from it becoming a proper replacement for running games on a local device.
 
From following the Stadia thread a while back there were plenty who for the most part thought the tech was great and poor latency rare or at least fairly solid. Not everyone but enough to suggest that it can work. But yeah we’re quite a way off that for the mainstream. I never got to try it. Streaming older PS3 games on my PS5 which are not able to be downloaded is so so. Latency seems ok but the games look so ropey compared to what we have now it’s hard to say. I might do some testing to see what else is on there. Try some PS4 stuff.
 
Last edited:
Sony and Microsoft have agreed a good time 10 year deal.... but only for COD.
Further proving that Sony's whole problem with the deal was that they were scared of being cut off from the COD cash cow.
 
The UK Competition Authority have this morning provisionally agreed to allow the Activision takeover by Microsoft on the basis that cloud rights to Activision games will be shared wtih UbiSoft...
Looks like the deal will be completed this time then!
 
This had ended up costing MS a lot more than $70bn through the utter humiliation and exposure of incompetence through all the leaks lol..
 
Well I'm looking forward to more Game Pass stuff (even though I barely use the damn thing as I hate using the Xbox app on PC) but I can't help feel like this is a slippery slope to even more publishers being snapped up by Microsoft. That's two big ones in the bag now. You never know, there could be secret agreements that MS will be buying Ubisoft within the next 15 years - one of the concessions they had to make was to sell cloud streaming rights to Ubisoft.
 
Last edited:
chrismscotland said:
The UK Competition Authority have this morning provisionally agreed to allow the Activision takeover by Microsoft on the basis that cloud rights to Activision games will be shared wtih UbiSoft...
Looks like the deal will be completed this time then!
Click to expand...

Finally.

n111ck said:
This had ended up costing MS a lot more than $70bn through the utter humiliation and exposure of incompetence through all the leaks lol..
Click to expand...

Doubt it’ll make any difference to them.
 
ic1male said:
Well I'm looking forward to more Game Pass stuff (even though I barely use the damn thing as I hate using the Xbox app on PC) but I can't help feel like this is a slippery slope to even more publishers being snapped up by Microsoft. That's two big ones in the bag now. You never know, there could be secret agreements that MS will be buying Ubisoft within the next 15 years - one of the concessions they had to make was to sell cloud streaming rights to Ubisoft.
Click to expand...

I doubt MS will be allowed to buy anyone else for a while now, certainly not a big publisher like Ubisoft or Rockstar... although its kind of hypocrisy from regulators as Sony are still by far and away the largest developer/publisher.

Also worth saying and something I only noticed today in the Financial Time article, their giving up rights to cloud streaming isn't as clear cut, its actually just giving up exclusivity - Activision games will still appear on GamePass / Xbox Cloud etc just not "exclusively".
I'm willing to bet most people still just play them via Game Pass...
 
n111ck said:
Well Xbox was already on a downward spiral and the leaked road map won't do anything there so maybe it can't get any worse - but it has been extremely amusing to watch - now lets see them ruin CoD.. :D
Click to expand...

downward spiral but Xbox makes more profit than PlayStation, according to the leaks :confused: With Nintendo well above both.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom