It’s been a little over a year since Microsoft announced its intention to acquire Activision Blizzard. Since then, what looked to be another blockbuster acquisition appears far more uncertain as regulators in multiple countries scrutinize a deal that could potentially upend the video game industry.
While legal experts have maintained that the Activision Blizzard acquisition doesn’t constitute a monopoly (more on that later), it still marks a seismic shift in the video game landscape – and warrants an appropriate level of examination. But how did another day in the increasing mergers-focused industry become such a regulatory landmine? Read on for a full breakdown of how we got here.
Microsoft Acquires Activision Blizzard: The Story So Far
The acquisition, which is set to close in 2023, has major implications for the games industry encompassing one of gaming’s biggest console makers and some of gaming’s biggest franchises including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Overwatch.
January 18, 2022 – Microsoft Announces It Will Acquire Activision Blizzard.
Xbox announced via its official Xbox Wire site that it would acquire Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. All Activision Blizzard studios which include Blizzard but also Call of Duty developers like Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer would report to Xbox head Phil Spencer. The main thrust of the deal is that Xbox announced it would work to bring as many Activision Blizzard games as it can into the Xbox Game Pass subscription service.
The deal was not immediate and Xbox did not provide a timeline for when the acquisition would be completed, but the news easily eclipsed Xbox’s last major acquisition, a purchase of ZeniMax Media in 2020, for what seems now like a paltry $7.5 billion.
April 1, 2022 – U.S. Senators Raise Concerns Over Activision Blizzard Acquisition
Several months after the announcement of the acquisition, four United States senators including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, and Sheldon Whitehouse sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission. This letter outlined concerns that the deal could disenfranchise current Activision Blizzard employees following allegations of sexual misconduct and other hostile workplace practices.
August 24, 2022 – Xbox Launches Website Outlining Benefits of the Acquisition
To spell out the benefits of Xbox’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard to the public, Microsoft launched a website that highlighted its “vision for gaming,” and the positives of what could become the biggest deal in video game history.
According to Xbox, the acquisition will mean more games on more devices, more choices for how to purchase games, and variety for mobile gamers. Xbox also claims that developers will have easier access to customers, a fairer marketplace, and greater flexibility in payment systems.
September 1, 2022 – Call of Duty Will Still Launch on PlayStation on the Same Day, Also Game Pass
Spencer made a point to say that new Call of Duty games would still be released on PlayStation on the same day as it launches elsewhere, even if the goal is to eventually debut new Call of Duty, as well as Overwatch and Diablo, on Xbox Game Pass.
In another blog post, Spencer confirmed that PlayStation gamers will receive the new Call of Duty on the same launch day as any other platform, including presumably Xbox Game Pass where first-party Xbox games are released day-and-date as retail.
September 7, 2022 – PlayStation’s Jim Ryan Calls Xbox’s Call of Duty Promise ‘Inadequate on Many Levels’
In a statement to Gamesindustry.biz, Ryan said that the publicly stated promise to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for three years after the current agreement is not appealing to PlayStation. “After almost 20 years of Call of Duty on PlayStation, their proposal was inadequate on many levels and failed to take account of the impact on our gamers.”
October 12, 2022 – Following Concerns Raised by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, Xbox Says PlayStation Is Too Big to Fail
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) raised concerns over Xbox’s planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard. In response, Xbox said the concerns were unsupported and claimed PlayStation was too big to fail.
“The suggestion that the incumbent market leader, with clear and enduring market power, could be foreclosed by the third largest provider as a result of losing access to one title is not credible,” Xbox said in a statement. In addition, Xbox said that even if every Call of Duty player on PlayStation switched to Xbox, “the PlayStation gamer base remaining would be significantly larger than Xbox.”
October 31, 2022 – Phil Spencer: Call of Duty Will Continue to Ship on PlayStation ‘As Long as There’s a PlayStation to Ship To’
In ongoing commitments to keeping Call of Duty multiplatform, Phil Spencer said the intent was not to take Call of Duty away from PlayStation gamers and that as long as there is a PlayStation to ship to, Xbox will ship Call of Duty to Sony’s console.
Speaking on the Same Brain YouTube channel, Spencer cited Minecraft, a game that Xbox continued to ship to other platforms even after acquiring developer Mojang.
November 11, 2022 – Xbox Offers PlayStation a 10-year Deal to Keep Call of Duty on the Platform
It was reported by The New York Times that Xbox offered Sony a 10-year deal to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation. While PlayStation did not comment on the offer, this marks a seven-year increase over the current three-year deal in place to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation.
This deal will also come to mirror a similar arrangement made with Nintendo that we will discuss in more detail further down.
December 8, 2022 – The Federal Trade Commission Sues to Block Xbox’s Activision Blizzard Acquisition
In a press release, the FTC said that Xbox could “harm competition in high-performance gaming consoles and subscription services by denying or ‘degrading’ rivals’ access to its popular content.” The FTC cited the acquisition of ZeniMax Media as one example of this, and how games like Redfall and Starfield will not be appearing on rival consoles.
In an internal memo, current Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick told employees that while the lawsuit “sounds alarming,” the expectation is that the deal will proceed as planned.
December 12, 2022 – Phil Spencer Says Sony Wants to Grow ‘By Making Xbox Smaller’
In a slight departure of tone, Spencer struck back at PlayStation’s attempts to block the company’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard by saying PlayStation wants to “protect their dominance” by “making Xbox smaller.”
Spencer appeared on the Second Request podcast calling Sony the only “major opposer” to the deal. “They have a very different view of the industry than we do. They don’t ship their games day and date on PC, [and] they don’t put their games in the subscription when they launch their games,” he said.
While Spencer previously spent months talking about how Call of Duty would remain on PlayStation, this was met with Jim Ryan calling these overtures “inadequate.” By hitting back on PlayStation’s dominance, Spencer marked a change in tone as the battle over the acquisition continued to intensify.
January 5, 2023 – UK CMA Extends Investigation into Xbox’s Acquisition of Activision Blizzard
Citing the complexity of the case, the CMA announced it would extend its investigation into the acquisition by up to eight weeks to process the amount of evidence it has gathered. Plus, the CMA must also go through the responses it acquired from the public after reaching out for opinions about the acquisition.
The extension means that the final submission date for the CMA’s report on whether Xbox’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard is negative for the industry is now April 26 instead of its original deadline of March 1. However, the CMA also said the report could be completed anytime before that date.
January 30, 2023 – The Last of Us’ Success on HBO Proves Sony’s Merger Opposition Is Baseless
“Sony has an unrivaled warchest of IP, not just in gaming but TV, movies, and music — which can be developed into games, or can market existing games,” Meservey said. “It’s no wonder they also continue to dominate as the market leader for consoles. In gaming, Sony is ‘the first of us’ – and they will be just fine without the FTC’s protection.”
Meservey cited the record-breaking viewership for HBO’s The Last of Us, which is also produced by PlayStation Productions and Sony Pictures Television, as examples of Sony’s wide net.
February 3, 2023 – The European Union Issues Antitrust Warning to Microsoft
According to Politico, EU representatives issued a formal warning to Microsoft over its acquisition plans, claiming that Microsoft could be “incentivized” to keep Call of Duty away from rival consoles.
In response, Microsoft said it is “listening carefully to the European Commission’s concerns and are confident we can address them.”
With the EU, the UK, and the US seemingly critical of the acquisition, scrutiny from the world’s top market regulators has only intensified as the deal tries to find a way forward.
February 8, 2023 – Xbox’s Acquisition of Activision Blizzard Could Harm Gamers, CMA Says
The UK’s CMA published a provisional report of its investigation that raised several concerns about Xbox’s plans to acquire Activision Blizzard. This included risk of higher prices for games, fewer choices, and less innovation for UK gamers.
One particular area of concern is cloud gaming. According to the CMA, Microsoft accounts for 60% to 70% of current cloud gaming offerings and making Call of Duty an exclusive could “alter the future of gaming.”
The CMA also said that making games exclusive to Xbox “could substantially reduce the competition between Xbox and PlayStation in the UK,” and “could result in all gamers seeing higher prices, reduced range, lower quality, and worse service in gaming consoles over time[.]”
February 21, 2023 – Xbox Signs 10-Year Deal to Bring Call of Duty to Nintendo, Nvidia
Microsoft president Brad Smith confirmed that the company signed a binding 10-year contract to bring Call of Duty games to Nintendo device owners “the same day as Xbox, with full feature and content parity.” This deal is meant to highlight that Xbox’s acquisition would not silo Call of Duty to the Xbox ecosystem, and what better way than bringing Call of Duty to a platform the series has aggressively ignored in the past?
In particular, the promise to deliver Call of Duty games to Nintendo gamers with full content parity feels especially ambitious given Nintendo’s hardware performance issues.
On the same day, Microsoft announced a 10-year deal to bring all of its PC games to Nvidia’s GeForce Now streaming service, including Activision Blizzard titles. This is a direct response to the UK CMA’s concerns regarding cloud gaming as Nvidia is a major rival in the service.
With the agreement, Nvidia dropped its concerns over the acquisition, clearing away at least one major tech company from opposing the deal.
With months before the UK CMA’s final report and still plenty of hurdles left, we will likely have many more episodes before we see any conclusion to Microsoft’s plans to acquire Activision Blizzard.
Although no one likes a know-it-all, they dominate the Internet.
The Internet began as a vast repository of information. It quickly became a breeding ground for self-proclaimed experts seeking what most people desire: recognition and money.
Today, anyone with an Internet connection and some typing skills can position themselves, regardless of their education or experience, as a subject matter expert (SME). From relationship advice, career coaching, and health and nutrition tips to citizen journalists practicing pseudo-journalism, the Internet is awash with individuals—Internet talking heads—sharing their “insights,” which are, in large part, essentially educated guesses without the education or experience.
The Internet has become a 24/7/365 sitcom where armchair experts think they’re the star.
Not long ago, years, sometimes decades, of dedicated work and acquiring education in one’s field was once required to be recognized as an expert. The knowledge and opinions of doctors, scientists, historians, et al. were respected due to their education and experience. Today, a social media account and a knack for hyperbole are all it takes to present oneself as an “expert” to achieve Internet fame that can be monetized.
On the Internet, nearly every piece of content is self-serving in some way.
The line between actual expertise and self-professed knowledge has become blurry as an out-of-focus selfie. Inadvertently, social media platforms have created an informal degree program where likes and shares are equivalent to degrees. After reading selective articles, they’ve found via and watching some TikTok videos, a person can post a video claiming they’re an herbal medicine expert. Their new “knowledge,” which their followers will absorb, claims that Panda dung tea—one of the most expensive teas in the world and isn’t what its name implies—cures everything from hypertension to existential crisis. Meanwhile, registered dietitians are shaking their heads, wondering how to compete against all the misinformation their clients are exposed to.
More disturbing are individuals obsessed with evangelizing their beliefs or conspiracy theories. These people write in-depth blog posts, such as Elvis Is Alive and the Moon Landings Were Staged, with links to obscure YouTube videos, websites, social media accounts, and blogs. Regardless of your beliefs, someone or a group on the Internet shares them, thus confirming your beliefs.
Misinformation is the Internet’s currency used to get likes, shares, and engagement; thus, it often spreads like a cosmic joke. Consider the prevalence of clickbait headlines:
You Won’t Believe What Taylor Swift Says About Climate Change!
This Bedtime Drink Melts Belly Fat While You Sleep!
In One Week, I Turned $10 Into $1 Million!
Titles that make outrageous claims are how the content creator gets reads and views, which generates revenue via affiliate marketing, product placement, and pay-per-click (PPC) ads. Clickbait headlines are how you end up watching a TikTok video by a purported nutrition expert adamantly asserting you can lose belly fat while you sleep by drinking, for 14 consecutive days, a concoction of raw eggs, cinnamon, and apple cider vinegar 15 minutes before going to bed.
Our constant search for answers that’ll explain our convoluted world and our desire for shortcuts to success is how Internet talking heads achieve influencer status. Because we tend to seek low-hanging fruits, we listen to those with little experience or knowledge of the topics they discuss yet are astute enough to know what most people want to hear.
There’s a trend, more disturbing than spreading misinformation, that needs to be called out: individuals who’ve never achieved significant wealth or traded stocks giving how-to-make-easy-money advice, the appeal of which is undeniable. Several people I know have lost substantial money by following the “advice” of Internet talking heads.
Anyone on social media claiming to have a foolproof money-making strategy is lying. They wouldn’t be peddling their money-making strategy if they could make easy money.
Successful people tend to be secretive.
Social media companies design their respective algorithms to serve their advertisers—their source of revenue—interest; hence, content from Internet talking heads appears most prominent in your feeds. When a video of a self-professed expert goes viral, likely because it pressed an emotional button, the more people see it, the more engagement it receives, such as likes, shares and comments, creating a cycle akin to a tornado.
Imagine scrolling through your TikTok feed and stumbling upon a “scientist” who claims they can predict the weather using only aluminum foil, copper wire, sea salt and baking soda. You chuckle, but you notice his video got over 7,000 likes, has been shared over 600 times and received over 400 comments. You think to yourself, “Maybe this guy is onto something.” What started as a quest to achieve Internet fame evolved into an Internet-wide belief that weather forecasting can be as easy as DIY crafts.
Since anyone can call themselves “an expert,” you must cultivate critical thinking skills to distinguish genuine expertise from self-professed experts’ self-promoting nonsense. While the absurdity of the Internet can be entertaining, misinformation has serious consequences. The next time you read a headline that sounds too good to be true, it’s probably an Internet talking head making an educated guess; without the education seeking Internet fame, they can monetize.
TORONTO – A new survey says a majority of software engineers and developers feel tight project deadlines can put safety at risk.
Seventy-five per cent of the 1,000 global workers who responded to the survey released Tuesday say pressure to deliver projects on time and on budget could be compromising critical aspects like safety.
The concern is even higher among engineers and developers in North America, with 77 per cent of those surveyed on the continent reporting the urgency of projects could be straining safety.
The study was conducted between July and September by research agency Coleman Parkes and commissioned by BlackBerry Ltd.’s QNX division, which builds connected-car technology.
The results reflect a timeless tug of war engineers and developers grapple with as they balance the need to meet project deadlines with regulations and safety checks that can slow down the process.
Finding that balance is an issue that developers of even the simplest appliances face because of advancements in technology, said John Wall, a senior vice-president at BlackBerry and head of QNX.
“The software is getting more complicated and there is more software whether it’s in a vehicle, robotics, a toaster, you name it… so being able to patch vulnerabilities, to prevent bad actors from doing malicious acts is becoming more and more important,” he said.
The medical, industrial and automotive industries have standardized safety measures and anything they produce undergoes rigorous testing, but that work doesn’t happen overnight. It has to be carried out from the start and then at every step of the development process.
“What makes safety and security difficult is it’s an ongoing thing,” Wall said. “It’s not something where you’ve done it, and you are finished.”
The Waterloo, Ont.-based business found 90 per cent of its survey respondents reported that organizations are prioritizing safety.
However, when asked about why safety may not be a priority for their organization, 46 per cent of those surveyed answered cost pressures and 35 per cent said a lack of resources.
That doesn’t surprise Wall. Delays have become rampant in the development of tech, and in some cases, stand to push back the launch of vehicle lines by two years, he said.
“We have to make sure that people don’t compromise on safety and security to be able to get products out quicker,” he said.
“What we don’t want to see is people cutting corners and creating unsafe situations.”
The survey also took a peek at security breaches, which have hit major companies like London Drugs, Indigo Books & Music, Giant Tiger and Ticketmaster in recent years.
About 40 per cent of the survey’s respondents said they have encountered a security breach in their employer’s operating system. Those breaches resulted in major impacts for 27 per cent of respondents, moderate impacts for 42 per cent and minor impacts for 27 per cent.
“There are vulnerabilities all the time and this is what makes the job very difficult because when you ship the software, presumably the software has no security vulnerabilities, but things get discovered after the fact,” Wall said.
Security issues, he added, have really come to the forefront of the problems developers face, so “really without security, you have no safety.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2024.
As online shoppers hunt for bargains offered by Amazon during its annual fall sale this week, cybersecurity researchers are warning Canadians to beware of an influx of scammers posing as the tech giant.
In the 30 days leading up to Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days, taking place Tuesday and Wednesday, there were more than 1,000 newly registered Amazon-related web domains, according to Check Point Software Technologies, a company that offers cybersecurity solutions.
The company said it deemed 88 per cent of those domains malicious or suspicious, suggesting they could have been set up by scammers to prey on vulnerable consumers. One in every 54 newly created Amazon-related domain included the phrase “Amazon Prime.”
“They’re almost indiscernible from the real Amazon domain,” said Robert Falzon, head of engineering at Check Point in Canada.
“With all these domains registered that look so similar, it’s tricking a lot of people. And that’s the whole intent here.”
Falzon said Check Point Research sees an uptick in attempted scams around big online shopping days throughout the year, including Prime Days.
Scams often come in the form of phishing emails, which are deceptive messages that appear to be from a reputable source in attempt to steal sensitive information.
In this case, he said scammers posing as Amazon commonly offer “outrageous” deals that appear to be associated with Prime Days, in order to trick recipients into clicking on a malicious link.
The cybersecurity firm said it has identified and blocked 100 unique Amazon Prime-themed scam emails targeting organizations and consumers over the past two weeks.
Scammers also target Prime members with unsolicited calls, claiming urgent account issues and requesting payment information.
“It’s like Christmas for them,” said Falzon.
“People expect there to be significant savings on Prime Day, so they’re not shocked that they see something of significant value. Usually, the old adage applies: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”
Amazon’s website lists a number of red flags that it recommends customers watch for to identify a potential impersonation scam.
Those include false urgency, requests for personal information, or indications that the sender prefers to complete the purchase outside of the Amazon website or mobile app.
Scammers may also request that customers exclusively pay with gift cards, a claim code or PIN. Any notifications about an order or delivery for an unexpected item should also raise alarm bells, the company says.
“During busy shopping moments, we tend to see a rise in impersonation scams reported by customers,” said Amazon spokeswoman Octavia Roufogalis in a statement.
“We will continue to invest in protecting consumers and educating the public on scam avoidance. We encourage consumers to report suspected scams to us so that we can protect their accounts and refer bad actors to law enforcement to help keep consumers safe.”
Falzon added that these scams are more successful than people might think.
As of June 30, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre said there had been $284 million lost to fraud so far this year, affecting 15,941 victims.
But Falzon said many incidents go unreported, as some Canadians who are targeted do not know how or where to flag a scam, or may choose not to out of embarrassment.
Check Point recommends Amazon customers take precautions while shopping on Prime Days, including by checking URLs carefully, creating strong passwords on their accounts, and avoiding personal information being shared such as their birthday or social security number.
The cybersecurity company said consumers should also look for “https” at the beginning of a website URL, which indicates a secure connection, and use credit cards rather than debit cards for online shopping, which offer better protection and less liability if stolen.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2024.
