They’re a lot better than Steam which is full of DRM, that’s for sure.
When Valve goes belly up one day, all Steam games are gone.
Look at the mess that is the Steam Deck. Half the games don’t work since Steam is full of DRM.
I fully own the games I buy on GoG, I don’t need a launcher, they have no DRM, and I can play them offline.
Steam sells a service. GoG sells actual games you get to own.
I am sorry but last I checked European countries have no say in what American companies do.
Also I thought it had already been blocked by the USA.
I have not heard that it is blocked by the USA.
I think that debate is ongoing.
When they operate in the European market, yes they do.
When a US company operates in Europe, it has to follow European rules.
You can’t sell chlorinated chickens or genetically modified food in Europe. And it doesn’t matter one iota if you are a US company or one from Guatemala. You need to follow the local rules.
Microsoft can ignore a UK decision, but then it can no longer sell in the UK, it is that simple.
That’s why multinationals are forced to abide by regulators from big markets, like the US, the EU, the UK, Japan. Because they are markets multinationals can not simply ignore, unless they want to lose substantial profits.
I always get the sense that Nanni is a blizz employee. We definitely have a couple regulars who post pretending to be otherwise who shill but I feel “she” is a disgruntled employee with deep inside knowledge, smart enough to say “her” peace but not enough to be found out.
20/10 reply
Well regardless a European agency has no right(s) to get involved with USA companies which both are. They can’t stop the merger as they are USA companies not EU.
@Nanni well it will be your lose I guess, while I understand some regulations like Genetically modified food etc. Telling a company from the USA that they can’t merge with another USA company is over reach in my opinion.
Hope Microsoft tells the EU where to stick it as I believe it would be the best thing to happen in a long time because Blizzard/Activision SUCK.
They cannot stop the merge, they can only stop business in their jurisdiction. It is all bloviating as none of that will float. The merge will happen if it ultimately makes sense and the politicians will blow hot air but in the end do nothing as there is little they can do.
So are We pro or con on this thing?
What I mean is, are there benefits either way for HS players?
Admittedly I would laugh if Team 5 got flushed, but beyond me, is there anything positive that might come of the merger?
Are there reasons that it might be better if it did not happen?
There is absolutely zero chance that Microsoft will overhaul something that they pay top dollar to buy. What the UK is blocking is Kotick receiving the biggest payday he’s ever had in his life.
The customers will get screwed either way. That is inevitable. I am not a republican and I am not a democrat.
I agree and disagree with parts of both sides.
One thing the Dems have right though is how bad, for everyone, these conglomerates are. In the short term, with shake-ups and new management, new incentives and the like it will seem like a win for the players but in actuality, they will lose out.
A corporation is an entity that feeds off people. A conglomerate devours them.
I believe in the old days the Rockefeller’s and the Carnages’ were those conglomerates that became so powerful and destructive to the American people, actual change happened. Because of those family’s major law and work reform happened. We are now on a precipice in a way. If people don’t fight back, they will become slaves to the system.
Make no mistake. The average American working person is nothing more than an indentured servant. Indentured until retirement.
If you think ANY of this has a happy ending for the average person, you haven’t been watching the movie.
Looks like you’ve edited the post a bit, I don’t remember the original…
If you’ve seen what they’ve been doing to Gwent, for instance, you’d recognise the HS story in it.
Some of them have no DRM, actually: for instance, you can just launch that Witcher 3 from the folder, no Steam required. I think the publisher decides this — or something like it.
re no need for a launcher. How about a launcher inside a launcher? 
And I can see why people would buy it — for their own convenience.
Even running their own title (yes, W3 again) used to be such a hassle from their ‘stellar’ client that someone I know, who has ‘supported the developer directly’ and so on thusly, regretted not just getting it from Steam instead.
Yeah, that’s their old marketing slogan that you’re repeating… Except they’re not those Good Old Guys anymore — that was my whole point.
I’m with you 100%. I remember a time not that long ago when I knew the family that owned the general store, and the family that owned the grocery store, etc.
Now, actual small businesses are all but dead.
So I agree that in that I have always been anti corporation, and all corporations are just conglomerates (to quote you) in waiting if you ask me…
FDR happened, and it has taken those who hate parity all this time to undo most of what He and his Cabinet built.
There are those that will never be happy until profiteers have all the power.
They still won’t be happy, as people like them can NEVER fill the void in their hearts.
I, for one, am pleasantly surprised that UK regulators would take action on the biggest merger in the history of gaming. Monopolies and concentrated markets are not a good thing. And I don’t say this as some sort of ideological standpoint (left or right). Companies will make all sort of arguments: this is good for growth, we will create jobs and spur technological development, yada-yada. The truth is, disproportionate market power is unequivocally bad for customers.
I dislike Activison as much as most people. But the problems with Blizzard’s products started precisely after being bought by a multimillion-dollar company that only cares about shareholders’ profit. Whoever thinks that being bought by an even more massive multinational company will change course on this trend is completely delusional and does not understand how this world works. This world would function much better if the standard on what is ‘too much’ market concentration was much, much lower. Maybe Activision-Blizzard would have never happened in the first place.
Idk man. That’s a bold claim.
fixed that for you 
Admittedly, no one could hate Activision or Team 5 as much as you do.
Sadly, ,most startups dream of building something up to … eventually sell for a chunk of cash. (unless they make it huge…)
I wanna build and sell it for millions when i grow up. 
I would say it actually is “that long ago”
Walmart became the biggest US retailer by revenue in 1990 (33 years ago) . As in, people who may have kids of their own already went through their entire lives where Walmart already took over many mom and pop shops.
If you want to go further back…
To keep this post related to HS. HS is a video game. You know what’s a major milestone in video game history? The crash of 1983. Killed a lot of smaller indie shops because man there were just too much crap flooding the market. What came out of the ashes? Nintendo, who would eventually become one of the big corporations in the console market (though I suppose not as big as the other two Sony and MS… yeah the original XBox came out 22 years ago, same year after Sega announced it’s discontinuing the Dreamcast… there are kids who can just vote who never lived in a world where Sega was one of the major console makers… Isekai Ojisan is sad now)
Let’s go one more step further back
In 1978 (45 years ago), PRC started opening up the country. This is one of the first steps that led to all the manufacturing jobs moving to China. If you’re born in '78 and had kids early, and your kid also had kids early, you might have grand kids already. That grand kid will grow up not knowing a China that isn’t a closed up underdeveloped communist backwater country.
Feeling old yet?
Mall lives in the wild wild frontier west … so it doesn’t apply.