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FTC Seeks to Block Microsoft Corp’s Acquisition of Activision Blizzard

Greggy

Member
You’re quoting one game, who the bell wants to play an actual game on a phone? I’m sure god of war on phone would be fun as hell or maybe gears v on phone. Get out of here with that bs. You’re arguing to argue not really stating anything of value outside of Monopoly good buying all companies good. So at this point I’ll just ignore you unless a valid argument is made.
The merger would make them the 3rd biggest player. A monopoly is not what you decide it to be. As for your projection regarding “arguing to argue”, well look in a mirror. Anybody with a device that connects to the internet, gaming of or not, can play anything on gamepass. Nintendo players will get COD, they’re not getting it now. And so will PS players. Name one consumer that is disadvantaged by that deal. It’s a rethorical question. Of course you can’t and your choice of words shows exactly how much of a leg you have to stand on. Have fun grandstanding away from the facts. At least you can feel important.
 

Snake29

RSI Employee of the Year
I honestly don't play any Activision or Blizzard games except Diablo. Not a huge deal to me personally. But I do think it's a bit ridiculous still to block this on the merits of competition when all I see is Sony dominance and anti-competitive actions frequently. I think the FTC is picking the wrong fight 100%. Xbox being stronger is going to result in more competition at this point. But not the end of the world for me either way, as far as what I personally play. MS can buy small studios and they will probably have more stuff I'm actually interested in. This will certainly be maximum drama.

I also don't care, but let's be real. Sony is competing with mostly own developed franchises, helping and financing other developers instead of buying up one of the oldest franchises which excised before Xbox. Financing other 3rd parties and getting timed exclusive deals, but it's the same Microsoft/Xbox is still doing (just look at all upcoming Xbox timed exclusives). I'm not saying that MS hasn't done anything for the business, but it's funny that Xbox fans criticise Sony for doing better for things Xbox can also do, but likely lags at it maybe? 2 years and people are only sort of angry at Sony, while MS is the one that needs to the creative to release the games.

As if Sony is going to wait for MS for making any deals.

MS can buy small studios and they will probably have more stuff I'm actually interested in. This will certainly be maximum drama.

Lol are you trying to convince yourself? All those "Microsoft can do this, Microsoft can do that, They will bla bla bla". Yet a company that isn't worth a trillion dollar is smoking this company. Money alone is not going to make Xbox do better, there is more to it in many other areas they are just incompetent and not very creative.

The fact its going to court is in all honestly a good position for them. Better then relying on governing body that can rule the way of the wind. actual facts and not conjecture will be used in court. When its said and done, they will win and have no concessions for sony.

Keep sucking dude keep sucking.

suck my dick wwe GIF
 
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Banjo64

cumsessed
Throw back but how funny was it when the CMA published their initial report first and we had to read about how they were corrupt/don’t understand the market but now the EU and US have followed suit with the exact same language/concerns. Maybe all of the western world is just corrupt against MS and should aspire to be Brazilian/Saudi on this blessed day?
 

GHG

Member
Looks like chances of Starfield coming to PS just increased significantly. Couldn't MS just play dumb right now and announce Starfield on PS to avoid being called a liar?

Well they are now stuck between a rock and a hard place. I can't imagine them reversing the decision to make the Bethesda/Zenimax library exclusive because it wont go down well with their fanbase, but if they do it will show intent to regulators to cooperate based on previous statements.

But you know what, it's about time they stopped pandering and listening to their crazy hardcore fanbase, it's done them no favours over the past decade. Stop chasing PR "wins" and stop giving these twitter mouthpieces blank ammo, focus on what's best for the business.

They are in this mess because they talk too much. There are now a ton of contradictory statements out there because of this, learn the art of shutting the fuck up and letting your products do the talking.

Throw back but how funny was it when the CMA published their initial report first and we had to read about how they were corrupt/don’t understand the market but now the EU and US have followed suit with the exact same language/concerns. Maybe all of the western world is just corrupt against MS and should aspire to be Brazilian/Saudi on this blessed day?

This whole process has been a reality check for everyone who thought this whole thing would be smooth sailing and went after the CMA when their decision was first revealed. Taking the piss out of the UK and saying wait for the FTC and EU. Well now that's come round all they have left to cling on to is a bunch of leaked CADE documents and Saudi Arabia. Hate to see it.

Activision lawyers and MS lawyers both will show how FTC blindly supporting Sony. They not supporting Consumers, they supporting Sony coz Sony dropped a bag on that bitch Lina Khan.

We now have hundreds of pages of documents available to us from all the various regulatory bodies and some of you are still like "Sony this, Sony that". It's quite telling and quite frankly embarrassing.
 
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Mattyp

Gold Member
Microsoft: "While we believed in giving peace a chance, we have complete confidence in our case and welcome the opportunity to present our case in court."

Who do Microsoft think they are? Talking about themselves as if they are the fucking United Nations :messenger_grinning_sweat:

United Nations GIF by GIPHY News

They have more money than the united nations and higher revenue then a bunch of countries so why not?

Enjoy court FTC you're going to get your shit kicked in by the best in the business.
 

zcaa0g

Banned
It's a simple game; bribe the right people and you win. MS has plenty of bribing money and there are always plenty of key players to take that bribe money.
 

After Formula One they didn't do anything decent (except, maybe, Wipeout 3 - meh-, and the Vita Wipeout) ).

That's not necessarily bad management. They received more limited budgets based on their profitability. They closed similarly due to their cost and lack of profitability. That doesn't suggest specific mismanagement by Sony. Why has Naughty Dog been successful but not them? Why Sony Santa Monica?

Santa Monica wanted to do a non-god of war game and Sony let them and it blew up in their face and ended up getting canceled. They were hit by layoffs as a result. Was this mismanagement? Was it mismanagement to return to God of War with a pseudo-sequel/reboot?
 

Gavon West

Spread's Cheeks for Intrusive Ads
Marketshare should be earned, not bought.

Let them compete on their merits, and not their balance sheets.
Nah. Let them compete the way they compete. Microsoft wasn't going to move the needle trying to battle Sony with their own playbook. They had to do so using their own. As a software company, that's what their doing. It's also working.

Besides, are you really going to begrudge them for using their biggest assets to compete against the market leader? It just makes sense. It is what it is.

Why ask Microsoft to compete and then get bent when they actually do? Y'all are weird...
 
Looks like chances of Starfield coming to PS just increased significantly. Couldn't MS just play dumb right now and announce Starfield on PS to avoid being called a liar?
They might just do that…. And when it comes up in court they can play dumb and say “We planned on putting Starfield on Playstation all along!”
 
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GHG

Member
They might just do that…. And when it comes up in court they can play dumb and say “We planned on putting Starfield on Playstation all along!”

Good luck with that:
AyyDWhP.jpg


Like I said, they talk too much. There's so much that's been said over the last few years and there's no way of taking any of that back. The only way forward now is for them to be candid but it seems their intent is to do the opposite. So let's see how that goes.

----

Thanks for the gold whoever it was ❤️
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Looks like chances of Starfield coming to PS just increased significantly. Couldn't MS just play dumb right now and announce Starfield on PS to avoid being called a liar?
After so many statements that these games are launching exclusively on Xbox, they will look even bigger liars -- both in front of regulators and their hardcore fans.

https://wccftech.com/starfield-not-timed-exclusive-pc-xbox-series-x-s-only/

"But if you're an Xbox customer," Spencer continued, "the thing I want you to know is this [Zenimax acquisition] is about delivering great exclusive games for you that ship on platforms where Game Pass exists. And that's our goal, that's why we're doing this,
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
MS did make Bethesda cancel PlayStation version of the game which was in development after the acquisition so there's that.
Not just that, they also made Double Fine cancel the PS5 version of Psychonauts 2. They can be so petty. It just doesn't get mentioned as much because Psychonauts 2 is a small game at best that rarely anyone cares about. But they did that, too.
 

Snake29

RSI Employee of the Year
MS did make Bethesda cancel PlayStation version of the game which was in development after the acquisition so there's that.

Man if this was the other way around. They already cry about games like Stray only on PS, but you never hear them about timed exclusives like Warhammer Darktide, Valheim, ARK2, STALKER 2, High on Life, Scorn, ExoMecha of whatever other timed they have for the future.

Sony is open on how they invest in NEW studios and NEW IP's, instead of just buying up MULTIPLE established OLD IP's up because that's sort of their only last way for MS to stay relevant.
 
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Lots of delusional people in here that hopefully get paid for posting claming that every zenimax title is under "threat" of not staying exclusive lmao.

MS did not lie to the EU Regulators as FTC is stating, lets look at MS statement to the European Regulators.

image.png


As you see in 108, console exclusivity would happen if it led to an increase of undisclosed number of million users in five year and an increase to xbox shipments above forcast level. Starfield a big AAA game from Bethesda easily fits into this as its projections at the end of the day. The same with Redfall its a new AAA game, so none of this is untrue. It might be a bit deceiving but not a single thing they have said is untrue here. They also have said that it would be a case by case basis and would be available on other platforms, as it is through xcloud.

The FTC really has no leg to stand on, as the previous chairman of the FTC said earlier to CNBC, it goes into the questions like:
are big companies not allowed to acquire game companies anymore
if withholding exclusive content ergo games from other rivals is anti consumer what does it mean for exclusivity in general in the industry?


if the FTC where to win the case then you would not see bigger companies acquiring any type of developers anymore, because it sets the precedence that exclusive content is bad and harmful for consumers.

This is just mostly posturing and optics by the FTC and dems hoping that Microsoft would fold as they need a win in the public eye, if they get concessions they will showcase it as "see we stopped big tech a bit!!!"
 
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xHunter

Member
Nah. Let them compete the way they compete. Microsoft wasn't going to move the needle trying to battle Sony with their own playbook. They had to do so using their own. As a software company, that's what their doing. It's also working.

Besides, are you really going to begrudge them for using their biggest assets to compete against the market leader? It just makes sense. It is what it is.

Why ask Microsoft to compete and then get bent when they actually do? Y'all are weird...
As a software company Microsoft should be embarressed that they even get to the point where they have to go on a massive shopping spree after being in the industry for 20 years due to to them somehow ignoring to create a constant stream of, you know, software for their platform.
 
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mejin

Member
Glad to see this happening. It would set a dangerous precedent.

Microsoft went down the “let’s buy studios to make games” route. Didn’t work, so now they’ve been going down the “buy publishers so we own all the IP” route.

If this goes through, it won’t stop. EA would be next, then they’d start going for the few Japanese publishers that are left.

2K, Ubisoft, etc....till when their excuse of "expanding the market" would work lol
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Lots of delusional people in here that hopefully get paid for posting claming that every zenimax title is under "threat" of not staying exclusive lmao.

MS did not lie to the EU Regulators as FTC is stating, lets look at MS statement to the European Regulators.

image.png


As you see in 108, console exclusivity would happen if it led to an increase of undisclosed number of million users in five year and an increase to xbox shipments above forcast level. Starfield a big AAA game from Bethesda easily fits into this as its projections at the end of the day. The same with Redfall its a new AAA game, so none of this is untrue. It might be a bit deceiving but not a single thing they have said is untrue here. They also have said that it would be a case by case basis and would be available on other platforms, as it is through xcloud.

The FTC really has no leg to stand on, as the previous chairman of the FTC said earlier to CNBC, it goes into the questions like:
are big companies not allowed to acquire game companies anymore
if withholding exclusive content ergo games from other rivals is anti consumer what does it mean for exclusivity in general in the industry?


if the FTC where to win the case then you would not see bigger companies acquiring any type of developers anymore, because it sets the precedence that exclusive content is bad and harmful for consumers.

This is just mostly posturing and optics by the FTC and dems hoping that Microsoft would fold as they need a win in the public eye, if they get concessions they will showcase it as "see we stopped big tech a bit!!!"

You're reading this completely wrong.
  • They called the exclusivity strategy "hypothetical." (which we know isn't hypothetical at all. It never was hypothetical, starting the very next day the acquisition closed).
  • "would happen if it led to an X% increase in GP and Xbox shipments above forecast level." Has MS changed their forecasts levels? No. That means they made the games exclusive without hitting the GP and Xbox shipment numbers they mentioned to regulators.
  • "It is implausible that MS will get those numbers" -- true, it was implausible, so why did they make those games exclusives if they didn't hit those numbers?
  • "Therefore, according to MS, they would not have the incentive to cease or limit Zenimax games on rival consoles." -- they said they don't have an incentive and therefore don't want to make those games exclusive. Yet they did exactly that the very next day.
It's clear as daylight that they lied. Their lie is proven by the fact that every regulatory body (FTC, EU, and CMA) has called out MS for these lies.

You're assuming those thousands of people are wrong, but you're right in interpreting it? Think again.
 
Lots of delusional people in here that hopefully get paid for posting claming that every zenimax title is under "threat" of not staying exclusive lmao.

MS did not lie to the EU Regulators as FTC is stating, lets look at MS statement to the European Regulators.

image.png


As you see in 108, console exclusivity would happen if it led to an increase of undisclosed number of million users in five year and an increase to xbox shipments above forcast level. Starfield a big AAA game from Bethesda easily fits into this as its projections at the end of the day. The same with Redfall its a new AAA game, so none of this is untrue. It might be a bit deceiving but not a single thing they have said is untrue here. They also have said that it would be a case by case basis and would be available on other platforms, as it is through xcloud.

The FTC really has no leg to stand on, as the previous chairman of the FTC said earlier to CNBC, it goes into the questions like:
are big companies not allowed to acquire game companies anymore
if withholding exclusive content ergo games from other rivals is anti consumer what does it mean for exclusivity in general in the industry?


if the FTC where to win the case then you would not see bigger companies acquiring any type of developers anymore, because it sets the precedence that exclusive content is bad and harmful for consumers.

This is just mostly posturing and optics by the FTC and dems hoping that Microsoft would fold as they need a win in the public eye, if they get concessions they will showcase it as "see we stopped big tech a bit!!!"

Microsoft claimed that those conditions were improbable. If Redfall of all games meets these "improbable" conditions, then any of their AAA games do.

That's not deciet. It's a complete fucking lie
 
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GHG

Member
Lots of delusional people in here that hopefully get paid for posting claming that every zenimax title is under "threat" of not staying exclusive lmao.

MS did not lie to the EU Regulators as FTC is stating, lets look at MS statement to the European Regulators.

image.png


As you see in 108, console exclusivity would happen if it led to an increase of undisclosed number of million users in five year and an increase to xbox shipments above forcast level. Starfield a big AAA game from Bethesda easily fits into this as its projections at the end of the day. The same with Redfall its a new AAA game, so none of this is untrue. It might be a bit deceiving but not a single thing they have said is untrue here. They also have said that it would be a case by case basis and would be available on other platforms, as it is through xcloud.

The FTC really has no leg to stand on, as the previous chairman of the FTC said earlier to CNBC, it goes into the questions like:
are big companies not allowed to acquire game companies anymore
if withholding exclusive content ergo games from other rivals is anti consumer what does it mean for exclusivity in general in the industry?


if the FTC where to win the case then you would not see bigger companies acquiring any type of developers anymore, because it sets the precedence that exclusive content is bad and harmful for consumers.

This is just mostly posturing and optics by the FTC and dems hoping that Microsoft would fold as they need a win in the public eye, if they get concessions they will showcase it as "see we stopped big tech a bit!!!"

What's delusional is thinking the FTC would make this statement without the ability to cross-reference the foretasted numbers with how they have done since those statements in terms of user and unit growth respectively.

The only way the FTC and EU wouldn't have a leg to stand on here is if the "implausible" suddenly became plausible. In order for that the case they (Microsoft) would need the numbers to back it up.

Secondary to that, the statements you can read in the excerpt above very much mirror the types of statements they've been making during their attempts to placate regulators for the ATVI deal. So as far as the regulators are concerned, they've seen and heard it all before.
 
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trikster40

Member
2K, Ubisoft, etc....till when their excuse of "expanding the market" would work lol
Microsoft’s end goal isn’t to be the #1 console, they could care less. Their end goal it to be the gatekeeper to video games much like Windows is to PC. If you own everything, well, you own the world.

If you think MS is just in it for gaming, you haven’t paid attention to MS for the last 30+ years.
 

jm89

Member
Dying to see what happens if CMA and EU join FTC?

Will some people start crying out for fascists? Will they say people at these regulatory bodies can’t read? Or will we be back to Wednesday nights at Sega?
They where pretty much already shitting on the CMA. FTC was to be their knight in shining armour and CMA just a backwater regulator. That sure worked out great.
 
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Swift_Star

Banned
They have more money than the united nations and higher revenue then a bunch of countries so why not?

Enjoy court FTC you're going to get your shit kicked in by the best in the business.
Best in the business? They’re the eternally 3rd place, they lost the smartphone market and MacOS is way more valued than windows. AWS is bigger and better than Azure. What are you talking about?
 
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Thirty7ven

Banned
Of course, why leave money on the table when the general public is chill with it from the market leader? Like paying for online.

It’s funny my wife’s cousin who is still a young buck and went from Nintendo to PlayStation to PC was over at the house playing around with the PS5 and we talked a bit about games. He didn’t know that MS was the one to introduce paid online gaming, and he also didn’t know MS charged for F2P online gaming when Sony had never.

You must be young.
 

OsirisBlack

Banned
The merger would make them the 3rd biggest player. A monopoly is not what you decide it to be. As for your projection regarding “arguing to argue”, well look in a mirror. Anybody with a device that connects to the internet, gaming of or not, can play anything on gamepass. Nintendo players will get COD, they’re not getting it now. And so will PS players. Name one consumer that is disadvantaged by that deal. It’s a rethorical question. Of course you can’t and your choice of words shows exactly how much of a leg you have to stand on. Have fun grandstanding away from the facts. At least you can feel important.
First of all good morning, to your points. I’m simply showing the facts and previous patterns. You with the deep analysis of what you perceive as projection and grandstanding are appreciated. Must make you feel important, see how easy that is? Also why is everyone acting like Nintendo players who want cod only own Nintendos console? Or like everyone wants to be FORCED into buying game pass? You know what being forced into one service owned by one company leads to? The word you said cannot be what I choose it to be. I can’t make this shit up it’s like you don’t read what you say before posting.
 
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Greggy

Member
First of all good morning, to your points. I’m simply showing the facts and previous patterns. You with the deep analysis of what you perceive as projection and grandstanding are appreciated. Must make you feel important, see how easy that is? Also why is everyone acting like Nintendo players who want cod only own Nintendos console? Or like everyone wants to be FORCED into buying game pass? You know what being forced into one service owned by one company leads to? The word you said cannot be what I choose it to be. I can’t make this shit up it’s like you don’t read what you say before posting.
Even Microsoft customers are not forced into subscribing to game pass, much less anybody else. You have a warped view of reality. I respectfully suggest you jog on sir. Thank you.
 

Ar¢tos

Member
What would happen if the merger doesn't go through?
Activision is forced to split in 2 or companies and MS gets to buy some of them while the others go for 3rd party auction?
 
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