Six UK Developers Say Microsoft's Activision Blizzard Deal Should Move Ahead - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 04 April 2023 / 4,245 Views
The UK regulators, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), have published responses from six video game developers and publishers based in the UK and all said Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition should move ahead.
4J Studios was the only developer to be named, while the other five have remained anonymous.
"The games industry is now the world’s largest entertainment industry and, as such, it is inevitable that companies like Microsoft need to gain access to more content and talent to justify their continued investment into large scale hardware platforms such as Xbox," said 4J Studios' chairman and co-founder Chris van der Kuyl.
"We do not see the proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard as anything other than a natural evolution of the industry and it does not give us any cause for concern for our own future opportunities."
The second studio in its own statement said, "We believe that consumers' tastes and preferences in the video game space cut across a broad array of games and a wide variety of genres and platforms. As such, we do not believe that any title can be considered a 'must have' in the interactive entertainment market.
"In the context of this dynamic, and considering Microsoft’s stated commitment to make certain games available on all platforms, we do not believe the proposed transaction will negatively impact consumers."
The CEO from an independent game developer who has "worked with most of the top game publishers including Sony, Microsoft and Activision" said that "Microsoft always honor their contracts and obligations. When they say that they intend to make Call of Duty content available on Sony and Nintendo platforms, I believe them and I believe it is in their interest as well as the interest of the industry."
The CEO added, "If Microsoft is prevented from acquiring Activision, would the UK consumers be better served if they were acquired by Tencent instead? Chinese publishers in our industry benefit from an unfair advantage due to the fact that the China market is closed to Western companies through various regulations while Chinese companies can freely access the Western markets. Letting Microsoft and Activision consolidate their business in light of this fast-growing competition would not be against the interest of UK consumers."
The fourth company is a "developer and a publisher of AAA titles" who has released games on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, PC, and mobile platforms.
"We are of the opinion that it is difficult to predict exact effects of the anticipated acquisition by Microsoft Corporation of Activision-Blizzard, Inc., in particular due to the complexity of the video game industry and diversity of Microsoft’s own business operations," reads the statement from the fourth company.
"We do not, however, expect any significant impact of the Merger on our company nor distribution of our own products. In particular, we do not expect the Merger to pose any risks to the distribution of our own games on Xbox or other consoles."
The fifth company has released games on "various gaming platforms, including both Xbox and PlayStation" and found their video game sales on Xbox and PlayStation have moved in different directions with the structure of each platform being different.
"On PlayStation, we've found our sales growing stagnant with each release," reads the statement from the fifth company. "This is mainly due to the fact that, despite PlayStation having the lion's share of player numbers and console sales, that share is mainly provided to larger titles from huge publishing labels, and/or developers and publishers who are willing to spend lots of money on paid marketing within the PlayStation console."
The fifth company added, "On Xbox, the opposite has come true over the last several years. There are numerous means of players finding your game on Xbox, including in special sections on the store, and through the Xbox Game Pass service. As a result, we've found that, despite Xbox having much smaller player numbers and console sales than PlayStation, our games sell just as well on Xbox, since more players are finding our games there."
The company concluded, "The acquisition will not all of a sudden make Xbox the dominant platform. It's far more likely that it may help to create a more level playing field between Xbox and PlayStation which, at this point in time, is sorely needed. PlayStation needs better competition, to force the platform to up its game, and this will surely help to do that."
The sixth company laid out two reasons as to why it is in support of Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition.
"We honestly found the arguments against this acquisition to be slightly exaggerated and out of proportion," reads the statement from the sixth company. "We are worried that actual real competition and more innovative consumer friendly initiatives, could be potentially hindered by blocking this, by potential market leaders/competitors, who might not be ready or might believe in a different strategy, or just not compelled to change their status quo on the market.
"While we do not want to point fingers at anyone's struggle to create and maintain a good culture for employees, as this is challenging for any company and has always been, we do see that a change in 'scenery' with a new home at MS might be good for some of our colleague's working in the studios on the various projects."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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"There are numerous means of players finding your game on Xbox, including in special sections on the store, and through the Xbox Game Pass service. As a result, we've found that, despite Xbox having much smaller player numbers and console sales than PlayStation, our games sell just as well on Xbox, since more players are finding our games there."
Kudos to MS on this, their marketing strategy is only a shadow of what it was but seems like organic presentation of the content makes up for it. For Sony however this should be an easy fix, but no doubt Devs like these make their grievances known to Sony so this is probably about monetization of the presentation on PS store more than Sony not knowing about the issue for smaller player.
Yeah, this isn't the first time we heard this about Sony's poorly designed store, 2 years ago indie devs made headlines by complaining about how Sony buries their games so deep in the store that nobody can find them, and that it costs $25k to promote your game on the first page of the Playstation Store. Xbox seems to be way more indie friendly in this regard, they not only frequently feature indie games on Gamepass and on the home page of the Xbox Store, but their store is better designed making it easier to find games in subsections without searching for them by title.
https://www.vg247.com/indie-devs-talk-poor-visibility-ps-store-25k-cost-better-placement#:~:text=Indie%20devs%20talk%20about%20poor%20visibility%20on%20PS,the%20lack%20of%20support%20they%20receive%20from%20Sony.
I have both console and the Play Station store is way messier Imo. I admit tho that because I'm really used to the Xbox stores, I may simply just not be used to Play Station one but I personally find it very badly designed and messy to navigate around (but I have the same opinion about the whole Play Station UI anyway). As the user perspective at least; So I'm not really surprised by those devs feedback.
I've predominantly used playstation over xbox until recently and I agree the xbox store is definitely better.
Practically The whole world is in favour of this deal, except the corrupt & the liars over at Sony.
Delusional talk
I'm curious, in what specific regard do you believe it's delusional?
I didn't expect the "better be MS rather than the Chinese" argument
Yeah, that caught me off guard too.
Leveling the playing field means devs will get much better deals through platform holders and that’s something that benefits everyone but one party. 🤷🏾♂️
Well said by those developers
Notice that 5 of the developers wanted to be anonymous. That is because they are worried about Sony’s vindictiveness.
Outrageous that Sony has that much power that smaller developers have be afraid about openly speaking the truth.
I would say its both.
Potentially. My point and problem with the OP is the statement as a fact.
I’m not arguing for which is more plausible.
Spot on. This is why the industry needs the shakeup
Lol - 4J who work pretty much only on Microsoft games votes for Microsoft to be allowed to by ABK 😂
Of the 19 games they have released, only 6 have come out on Xbox platforms.
And the last 7 were Minecraft who - drumroll- are now owned by….wait for it…Microsoft. They are to all intents and purposes now a part of Microsoft Game Studios.
MSFT would have been better off keeping them out of it. Including them and only naming them is a stupid move.
And of those 7 only drumroll …wait for it, 2 were xbox releases.
3 were published by *dumroll … wait for it Sony!
And guess who Sony are owned by. Hint - it isn’t Microsoft.
Sadly I think you’re confused between an owner of an ip/product and a publisher. Anyway
I’ll actually leave it to 4J themselves….
4J Studios is an SME Independent Games developer based in Dundee and East Linton. Our company has had a working relationship with the games division of Microsoft for over fifteen years. We have developed several games for Microsoft directly including Perfect Dark, Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie all for the Xbox 360. Microsoft were also responsible for introducing us to Mojang AB which ultimately led to us becoming the developer of Minecraft Console Editions on Xbox 360, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo WiiU and Nintendo Switch.
Independent in name only, dependent on MSFT
Sadly, I think you’re confused between when a developer is owned by a company and when has a close working relationship with a company but remains independent.
You know the CMA published these statements, not MS? Either way, there are 5 other UK studios in support of the deal. A much bigger deal than singling out one studio you find questionable.
What’s funny is if Sony went looking for devs that are against the deal going through I’m sure they could find plenty!!!!
Because this is regulators investigating the buyout. MS is the one that’s in the news all the time trying to push it through. Remember it only takes one of the three to reject and the deal won’t go through.. I for one would like to see no one be able to purchase huge publishers whether it’s Sony, Nintendo, Tencent, MS, etc.
Yeah I don't like this deal personally either. I'm personally reaching for any shred of hope that Blizzard can go back to being the magic developer it once was lol. Not to mention Activision making literally anything else besides CoD. They're 100% a CoD publisher these days.
Nothing is stopping Tencent from acquiring the entire industry though.
You understand this is the CMA asking directly to devs and not MS?
