$\"Hi-fi$ <\/p>\n

Image: Bethesda Softworks<\/span>\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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It\u2019s been over a year since Microsoft began its Activision acquisition<\/a> (say that five times fast), and the final stages of the sale are causing both companies some headaches. As part of the deal\u2019s regulatory approval in the UK \u2014 or lack thereof, we\u2019ll see! \u2014 Microsoft had to submit to the Competition and Market Authority\u2019s investigation. In Microsoft\u2019s self-report, it admitted that putting a game on the Game Pass subscription service results in a measurable decline in that game\u2019s retail sales. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s not exactly rocket science. But it is a big admission from Microsoft, which has spent the last few years restructuring both its Xbox and PC gaming strategy to emphasize monthly subscriptions to Game Pass over pure software and hardware sales. , Xbox boss Phil Spencer claimed in 2018 that a game being on Game Pass would lead to more <\/em>retail sales, not fewer. <\/p>\n

The exact degree to which a Game Pass game might diminish regular sales was redacted from the public report. But whenever a new game debuts on the service like Hi-Fi Rush<\/em> a couple of weeks ago<\/a>, it definitely gets a boost of exposure thanks to the cheap point of entry for new and existing Game Pass subscribers. Whether that\u2019s worth losing revenue from initial sales is probably an extremely complicated bit of corporate math. For example, Hi-Fi Rush<\/em> is published by Bethesda, a Microsoft subsidiary\u2014the company probably views signups for Game Pass itself as a win, no matter how much it might eat into the new game\u2019s sales on Steam and other platforms. <\/p>\n

Microsoft is trying to establish Game Pass as a new paradigm for gaming<\/a> and it\u2019s doing a pretty good job, creating a budget-friendly bulwark on PC and console to fight Sony\u2019s dominance with the PS4 and PS5. Microsoft has purchased a huge amount of publishers and developers in the last decade to secure exclusive titles including Minecraft <\/em>developer Mojang, Fallout: New Vegas<\/em> developer Obsidian, and Elder Scrolls <\/em>publisher Bethesda. <\/p>\n

Buying Activision-Blizzard for $70 billion would be one of the biggest deals in gaming history, which is why it\u2019s a sticking point for antitrust regulators in Europe and even the usually lenient United States<\/a>. For example, one of the UK Competition and Market Authority\u2019s recommendations for the deal to pass muster is for to a competitor. Some of Microsoft\u2019s rebuttals are getting weird, too. An executive <\/em>was a reason that Sony would still be able to compete after the prospective merger. <\/p>\n

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\n\t\tAuthor: Michael Crider<\/a>, Staff Writer\t\t<\/h3>\n
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Michael is a former graphic designer who’s been building and tweaking desktop computers for longer than he cares to admit. His interests include folk music, football, science fiction, and salsa verde, in no particular order.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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Read More<\/a>
\n Lyndia Mongold<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Image: Bethesda Softworks It\u2019s been over a year since Microsoft began its Activision acquisition (say that five times fast), and the final stages of the sale are causing both companies some headaches. As part of the deal\u2019s regulatory approval in the UK \u2014 or lack thereof, we\u2019ll see! \u2014 Microsoft had to submit to the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":608301,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2548,78,46],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-608300","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-confirms","8":"category-microsoft","9":"category-technology"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}