Microsoft might have purchased someone, maybe

The Brexit fanboys?

They've been riled since the block was announced.

"So they couldn’t find a legitimate reason, so they took a bribe by Sony and came up with cloud gaming… what utter nonsense"

"Would love to see MS pull out of the UK over this. Won't happen but would laugh my ass off. At least we know the competition and markets authority can be bribed now. I hope MS appeal, win and remove CoD from the Sony games catalogue. You reap what you sow."

"MS should just look at how much they would lose profit wise just dropping the UK all together.
Can’t be no more than 5% of their profits IF that"

I wonder what the Venn diagram of people making those comments, people who think Anheuser Busch is ruined and people who have paid for blue ticks on Twitter is?

Hmm

i

I mean, I dislike brexit just as much as the next person & disagree with the CMA based on the fact I really wanted diablo 4 on gamepass but this is precisely why we got brexit isn’t if (apart from the forins). The uk gets to make their own decisions (granted we did it wrong this time).

Nah.


Wonder how many other smaller studios MS could have bought/set up or 3rd party deals they could have arranged in the time it takes for this to finally be done with.

The selfish part of me just wanted Diablo 4 and Sekiro on Gamepass but this is probably the correct thing to do - good move from the CMA.

So, what actually happens here if the EU and the US find that everything is all fine to go ahead? If Microsoft decide to just do it based on the EU and the US can they no longer operate in the UK?

I assume if it actually did come to that, the CMA will quickly come to an arrangement that meant that wouldn't happen, but just curious on a hypothetical level.

I wondered that as well. If MS said they would move out of the UK then would the UK still have any sort of say in the deal. Would it affect product availability of they did or just their ability to have headquarters here.

Rather than all the shitty reporting we get it would be nice if someone worked it out as it would make for a more interesting story on the saga then what we currently get.

It would be interesting and also tell us how much power the CMA actually have. If the outcome of Microsoft going ahead with the deal is the complete removal of Microsoft products and services from the UK then businesses would collapse overnight. Everyone would suddenly have to move to Mac or Linux.

This obviously isn't going to happen, but if that is the ultimate outcome if they did just go ahead with the deal, the CMA would have to cave, basically making it pointless for companies of Microsoft's size and importance.

Someone in the comments posted my exact thoughts:


Sorry but it totally reads like the EU are naive to the idea of console exclusives

Still needs all three regulators to approve it to go ahead, no?

One says no, one is taking them to court in August and one says yes, which is still no deal at this point, I believe.

Probably a bit early for fanboy cheering (in either direction!) just yet.