Microsoft says it wants to close the Activision deal
by June 31st. I don't necessarily see that happening. Too many legal proceedings ongoing. Kinda wish they'd drop acquisition all together.
When Rare was at their best, it was with Nintendo. Conker, Banjo, Perfect Dark, Goldeneye, Diddy Kong Racing. Once Microsoft acquired Rare, I haven't seen anything great from them, accept Sea of Thieves. That wasn't great at launch either.
Who knows what will happen to Activision, if Microsoft gets them. Microsoft has said COD will still come to PS5 and even Switch. By then Switch 2 I hope. I would really like an SSX Tricky 2 or remaster of the og. One X got a 4K update, and looks pretty darn good.
Rare may have made some great games when Nintendo owned them but things werent all sunshine and roses. The key talent at Rare left to form a new studio. Nintendo wasn't too happy with that and opted to sell the remaining studio off instead of fill positions. MS got a good deal on that one as they were able to finish some of the games that were left hanging (Kameo and Grabbed by the Ghoulies for ex). Perfect Dark Zero isnt a bad game but it didnt feel like a Rare title which is understandable as the key talent who made the first were the ones who left.
I know Ms gets all the blame for this but it was Rare's idea to make avatars and MS liked it so much they tasked them with nothing BUT avatar stuff for the NXE and eventually Kinect. It wasnt until Mattrick left that Phil took them off that and let them make whatever they wanted. Which was sea of thieves. I think they had the most fun building that game and filling it with new ideas over the course of its life.
Tales through Rare's history reminds me of this curiosity - Kameo Elements of Power is featured on the launch GameCube box, yet ended up being a launch title for the Xbox 360 four years later.
I mean if they are saying they want to close the deal by June I would imagine they know more then you do about what’s going on in with the dealings that makes them feel confident in saying that.
It’s good that game pass is growing it’s such a great service. I’m excited for tomorrow especially for redfall I love co op games like left 4 dead. Finally they are providing AAA games.
I am no expert, and am not trying to come across as one. Especially with legal issues while acquiring such a large company. I just see the headlines about different entities fighting this purchase.
So, my thought is, with Microsoft having legal challenges over this, it might not happen by the end of June.
I could be wrong of course. I game across all platforms, so it doesn't really matter to me. I wish the best to PC,Sony,Microsoft, and Nintendo! More games for everyone!
Lol! Nice catch! I double checked and the article definitely says June 31st! When I quoted the article I remembered thinking 'June 31st?' But it didn't register!
It has to be done in by this summer, that was announced when he audition was. Big deals like this have end dates. MS will get approval from Europe and has already said they'll close without FTC approval if needed. Yes. They can close the deal even while the FTC fights it.
Your feelings are getting in the way on how the the FTC approval works. If that’s the case then AT&T - T-Mobile would have merged back in 2011 before the FTC stepped in. MS went as far to attack the FTC saying it is violates the constitution by blocking the acquisition….and backtracked fast realizing you don’t attack the organization who you’re trying to convince for the approval.
Clearly @mkis007 is the only one that has any idea of how these things work. Correct, and MS would win easily in open court (just look at any legal expert, not gaming media, reports). This MS/Activision deal doesn't check any of the monopoly boxes. Sony is and will remain the market leader after the deal. MS won't even move into second place after the acquisition. Most importantly, it's an example of verticle integration, which is typically rubber stamped by regulatory bodies. FTC is wasting tax payer money fighting this and Lina Khan will have terrible failure on her record and should lose her job.
120M active users? That can't be Xbox console gamers...way too high. Are they counting every Windows user that hasn't bothered to uninstall the default Xbox app?
It's Xbox/Microsoft, they're all about inflated nothing-burger numbers. It's probably some ridiculous context like you mentioned because clearly there's not enough Xbox One/Series systems combined to even come close to that numbers.
Across all platforms that gamepass is available on , that seems like an accurate number. It’s definitely a whole shitload of PCs out there on top of Xbox Ones and Series consoles would add up to 120 million.
Not to be cynical, but 120M is definitely extremely high and I suspect there is a lot of duplication. If I had to make a guess, it's counting Windows users with the Xbox App (as you mention), along with active Xbox consoles that have either logged in within this time period, or if the console is active within that time period (i.e., a console with 5 accounts but only one account is in use counts as 5 towards their total).
Definitely seems oddly inflated and I doubt those numbers hold up under scrutiny.
That kinda burns me up about them. I mean, it's one thing to exaggerate a bit, but flat out deception from the head of the company? That's the guy that sets the culture for the rest of the org to follow. Obvious deception like that, if that's what it is, is pretty sleazy in my book...
@DarXyde who would be at fault for that inflation ?? Would it be Microsoft or the people who constantly making new accounts to take advantage of $1 ? Microsoft can’t deny anybody for taking advantage of that deal , except obviously if you already redeemed it.
MAUs≠XGP subscribers. Those numbers, if I recall, are around 30-40M.
You ask whose fault it is for the inflation? Microsoft. They do nothing to address it because it pads their numbers. They could do something about it, but why would they? It makes them look better for their investors.
And actually... This is extremely clever by Microsoft because of this line:
"We saw new highs for Game Pass subscriptions, game streaming hours, and monthly active devices, and monthly active users surpass a record 120 million during the quarter between October 1 and December 31."
As I reread it, they're not talking about MAUs. This is why they word it this way. There is no unit. They're saying streaming hours + subs + active devices =120M. It is why they do not just say 120M active users: there's no singular unit they're looking at here. It's just that the quantity of streaming hours, number of subs (Live+XGP, presumably), and number of active devices (i.e., devices that turned on and Microsoft's networked logged it) totaled 120M.
Do you still think this disingenuousness is anyone but Microsoft doing what Microsoft does?
Microsoft never releases specifics in regard to Xbox, so who knows how they exactly got that number unless they break it down for us (which they won't, just like sales figures, failures rates like RROD, ect...).
Except the RROD effected consoles wasn’t counted towards a sale. They just replaced your motherboard and sent it back , how do they count that as a sale ?? You can know how they got that number by using common sense. If theres not enough Xbox consoles on the market to cover that number , obviously the rest would be PC users. What’s deceptive about that ? It would be the truth. It’s people who wasn’t so cheap and trying to always take advantage, you wouldn’t have an inflated number with people having duplicate accounts.
@wiz7191,
Not everyone got their console replaced on warranty, some just bought new consoles, so in essence, yes, it did add to their sales (some people bought 2 or 3 replacements). And no, you can't say how they got those numbers because they never detail how they got their numbers, I strongly doubt they even have that specific information unless they surveyed every purchase. We don't even now the exact failure rates because Microsoft has never given this information out like Sony or Nintendo does.
I don't recall saying they were lying either, as a best guess, I would agree with you that they've probably included both Xbox and PC owners in their "Active Monthly Users" tally, otherwise it definitely wouldn't add up (who knows what the exact percentage was though).
Do you know how many people own cell phones that can stream GP? so cell phones, PC and Xbox series, and Xbox one that 4 different ways to play GP.
Around 50 mill consoles sold between the entire Xbox family of consoles.
an unimaginable amount of PC out there and more cellphones than even that. 120Mill active users are way easy to believe.
between the 1$ sub deal, regular subscribers, and other cheaper prices including $10 a month for PC game pass, I don't see how you guys can think the numbers are fudged, even if in the last quarter someone tried it for 1, 2, or 3 months, they only counted that quarter, that counts Black Friday and Christmas where people are spending, where they sold over a million consoles in that time frame.
I know some of you want them to fail, but sheese, they said active users in that quarter, very specific.
Would be pretty easy for them to break down the numbers which would kill rumor and speculation. But Microsoft are notorious for hiding numbers after Sony completely dominated them with the PS4 in all the important figures that matter. Microsoft had to start pulling out useless metrics or numbers without context. Or throwing out player numbers acting like it's sold numbers.
Similar to the days of old when they never mentioned what the numbers were for silver and gold users. While Sony told directly how many Plus members they had.
I'm not talking about Sony, PS4, or the price of tea in china.
You just spewed some fan console war nonsense in defense of something that did not need defending.
MS announced active users for GP in one quarter to investors and analysts alike, which absolutely seems plausible given the timing,, price, and how many different ways you can access GP, even if it's for 1 month, 2, 3, 4 or you only play 1 game or 10, it was an active user...which they stated jut that...dispel and attempt to breakdown all you want, it's in the books pal.
So why is their revenue down 13% if they are doing so well ? Why not break down numbers ? When they are in a good, I should say if they are ever in a very good position they will start breaking things down. But they are losing money and don’t want to portray weakness to the markets .
Microsoft says it wants to close the Activision deal
by June 31st. I don't necessarily see that happening. Too many legal proceedings ongoing. Kinda wish they'd drop acquisition all together.
When Rare was at their best, it was with Nintendo. Conker, Banjo, Perfect Dark, Goldeneye, Diddy Kong Racing. Once Microsoft acquired Rare, I haven't seen anything great from them, accept Sea of Thieves. That wasn't great at launch either.
Who knows what will happen to Activision, if Microsoft gets them. Microsoft has said COD will still come to PS5 and even Switch. By then Switch 2 I hope. I would really like an SSX Tricky 2 or remaster of the og. One X got a 4K update, and looks pretty darn good.
I am saying the Activision is probably won't be done until 2024 imo.
120M active users? That can't be Xbox console gamers...way too high. Are they counting every Windows user that hasn't bothered to uninstall the default Xbox app?
@MS, The news should be;
"Microsoft Boasts Record 120 Million Xbox total Users"
NOT "Microsoft Boasts Record 120 Million Xbox Monthly Active Users"
Are you guys for real?
Do you know how many people own cell phones that can stream GP? so cell phones, PC and Xbox series, and Xbox one that 4 different ways to play GP.
Around 50 mill consoles sold between the entire Xbox family of consoles.
an unimaginable amount of PC out there and more cellphones than even that. 120Mill active users are way easy to believe.
between the 1$ sub deal, regular subscribers, and other cheaper prices including $10 a month for PC game pass, I don't see how you guys can think the numbers are fudged, even if in the last quarter someone tried it for 1, 2, or 3 months, they only counted that quarter, that counts Black Friday and Christmas where people are spending, where they sold over a million consoles in that time frame.
I know some of you want them to fail, but sheese, they said active users in that quarter, very specific.