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

And it does not invalidate FTC's argument (which never once mentioned commitment).
It invalidates it because Microsoft did not make the existing games unavailable on Playstation. They kept it in PSN just fine.
And even if you are trying to appeal to the "future" ("they made future games exclusives!") , at the moment of the transaction they saw no incentives but then PS5 outsold Xbox Series 3:1 in some area and then they saw the incentives to make them exclusive :messenger_tears_of_joy:

Holy shit, some professional fanboys are way too invested in this.
Hope he (Jez) doesn’t hurt himself.


Bernie forgot his pills for sure - saw "big tech" and started to complain. I don't understand why people even support him on this topic where he is literally an advocate for unions is opposing the transaction supported by unions. And he does not even play games.
 

Swift_Star

Banned
And even if you are trying to appeal to the "future" ("they made future games exclusives!") , at the moment of the transaction they saw no incentives but then PS5 outsold Xbox Series 3:1 in some area and then they saw the incentives to make them exclusive :messenger_tears_of_joy:


This makes it even worse for MS, because it shows the incentive is to keep games out of other consumers reach… since why would they deny other customers revenue? This is not the gotcha you think it is
 
EuJxlWv.jpg
 
This makes it even worse for MS, because it shows the incentive is to keep games out of other consumers reach… since why would they deny other customers revenue? This is not the gotcha you think it is
Unless you believe that platform holders cannot have exclusives (after all "exclusives" keep the games out of other consumers reach), it does not make it worse lol Also since when "Playstation consumers" represent the "consumers"? There are other platforms that have consumers and they were not hurt. The world does not revolve around Playstation thus Microsoft had the incentive to keep games out of "Playstation consumers reach". It is called a competition.
 
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Gavon West

Spread's Cheeks for Intrusive Ads
The notifying party is microsoft and its representatives.

Microsoft was making a case for why them buying Zenimax won't mean they would pull those games from PlayStation by saying doing so won't mean they gain a lot of customers so they have no incentive to make those games exclusive. This is now what the FTC is using to sue Microsoft because they "promised" not to do that with the Zenimax acquisition but went ahead and did it anyway.
False.
 

OsirisBlack

Banned
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hyperbertha

Member
Why are people angry that another massive Merger and Acquisition might get blocked? Why are people angry that market consolidation might be avoided?
Why?

Why is this even a stance? Are people's affinity to plastic boxes that play games that powerful, that they must throw consumer interests in the bin so their corporate overlord can get a W?

Why is it that Microsoft buying ABK a good thing, just because people with GamePass get more games? What about people who use PS++? What about those subscribers? Why does Microsoft need to be the one to control which subscription services get what?
You know why. The MS fans here would like nothing better. Meanwhile if this was sony the other side would be cheering it on. Just absolute dumb fucks most people here.
 
Man this is crazy, so I just did a quick search and everyone on here is acting like the EU will support Microsoft when they are already doing a deep dive because they do not like the idea of this acquisition. looks like it started on November 2nd and is still ongoing. Sheesh.
I think no matter what side you are on for this, if you look hard enough and people are doing it, but you can find plenty of content out there to support your position and I think that is the real problem here. And lets be real, most of us don't really understand all of the moving pieces and what it all means, so it adds to a very interesting dynamic going on.
 

Warablo

Member
Noppe MS beat them on that. Its now just waiting for a price hike for Gamepass...
Sony has raised consoles prices in the middle of a generation. Only in areas where Microsoft is weak in. Has that ever happened before? Sounds like dominance to me.

I don't care about a Game Pass price hike, if its too expensive they will lose subs.
 
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You know why. The MS fans here would like nothing better. Meanwhile if this was sony the other side would be cheering it on. Just absolute dumb fucks most people here.
Well... yes.

If Sony was buying ABK I would bet 90% of all those against this deal would suddenly be for it, and Xbox fans would be losing their mind about it being anti-competitive, etc.

This is an interesting timeline for sure.
 
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Swift_Star

Banned
Unless you believe that platform holders cannot have exclusives (after all "exclusives" keep the games out of other consumers reach), it does not make it worse lol Also since when "Playstation consumers" represent the "consumers"? There are other platforms that have consumers and they were not hurt. The world does not revolve around Playstation thus Microsoft had the incentive to keep games out of "Playstation consumers reach". It is called a competition.
That’s not what I said lmao 😂 don’t move goalpost. It’s not a good look.
 
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ToTTenTranz

Banned
This is the crux of the matter.
They just bought a $7B publisher and first thing they did was block their competition out of its software supply.

And then they announce the acquisition of another $70B supplier without offering any concessions whatsoever.
Every regulator saw this for what it really is. Microsoft couldn't compete with Sony on successfully managing their own studios and IPs for two decades, so now they're using money to block the competition out of the market. This is exactly why regulators exist.

If Microsoft was so eager to enter the mobile market they could've bought just King.
 
This is the crux of the matter.
They just bought a $7B publisher and first thing they did was block their competition out of its software supply.

And then they announce the acquisition of another $70B supplier without offering any concessions whatsoever.
Every regulator saw this for what it really is. Microsoft couldn't compete with Sony on successfully managing their own studios and IPs for two decades, so now they're using money to block the competition out of the market. This is exactly why regulators exist.

If Microsoft was so eager to enter the mobile market they could've bought just King.
The first thing they did was honor their contract and release Deathloop exclusively on PlayStation 5. King was not available as a separate company. The deal was for all of Activision not parts of the company piecemeal. It is not regulators job point out how well or poorly a company is doing especially based on a personal bias. They should be protecting consumers and there is nothing about this deal that harms ordinary consumers. It certainly isn't their job to protect market leaders.
Never heard of this guy before I'm 50 minutes in. There is some twisting of the law and a lot of personal opinion and bias in his delivery. I deal with lawyers every day, they are generally right to the point and not this ..... opinionated.
I have heard of this guy and have listened to his points on all matters of law. He had fantastic Johnny Depp analysis. I assure you he is far more fair and reasonable than many here that's for sure. It's not his fault the FTCs arguments are weak.
 
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Every regulator saw this for what it really is. Microsoft couldn't compete with Sony on successfully managing their own studios and IPs for two decades, so now they're using money to block the competition out of the market. This is exactly why regulators exist.
Literally no regulator complained about the amount of money spent on the acquisition lol
 

OsirisBlack

Banned
The first thing they did was honor their contract and release Deathloop exclusively on PlayStation 5. King was not available as a separate company. The deal was for all of Activision not parts of the company piecemeal. It is not regulators job point out how well or poorly a company is doing especially based on a personal bias. They should be protecting consumers and there is nothing about this deal that harms ordinary consumers. It certainly isn't their job to protect market leaders.

I have heard of this guy and have listened to his points on all matters of law. He had fantastic Johnny Depp analysis. I assure you he is far more fair and reasonable than many here that's for sure. It's not his fault the FTCs arguments are weak.
Not saying that he doesn't have other good takes and I am also not saying that the FTCs argument is strong. I simply stated that his bias on this subject is rampant and I wouldn't trust it. I'll check out his Johnny Depp trial analysis though I have a very differing opinion on that entire situation. Seeing as you brought it up they both shit the bed. LOL.
 

Warablo

Member
Not saying that he doesn't have other good takes and I am also not saying that the FTCs argument is strong. I simply stated that his bias on this subject is rampant and I wouldn't trust it. I'll check out his Johnny Depp trial analysis though I have a very differing opinion on that entire situation. Seeing as you brought it up they both shit the bed. LOL.
He's literally been playing God of War. What bias could he have? The right side of the law?
 
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But they aren’t remotely close to this. Apple is way more successful that Microsoft lol
No. They're really not. The main market they compete in would be with their operating systems, and in that segment Windows is more widely used than Mac OS.

Sure Apple currently has a higher market cap, but that's not the only metric which determines success. Microsoft financially, is a far more healthy company than Apple is.
 

OsirisBlack

Banned
He's literally been playing God of War. What bias could he have? The right side of the law?
Just watch the video (I did) The fact that when he speaks of MS he keeps saying "Us" and not them or him making jokes about thinking MS should raise the price of CoD to $100 on PS and make it free on game pass. There is a lot of unusual talk in this for him to be unbiased. Most of what I stated can be found in the first 50 minutes of the video. He also said that MS can be trusted because of a deal they made recently with Nintendo which is nothing more at this point than a handshake. It's all over the place and smells of bullshit.
 

Thirty7ven

Banned
Just watch the video (I did) The fact that when he speaks of MS he keeps saying "Us" and not them or him making jokes about thinking MS should raise the price of CoD to $100 on PS and make it free on game pass. There is a lot of unusual talk in this for him to be unbiased. Most of what I stated can be found in the first 50 minutes of the video. He also said that MS can be trusted because of a deal they made recently with Nintendo which is nothing more at this point than a handshake. It's all over the place and smells of bullshit.

Dude is getting the full champagne treatment by the online Xbox community, I suspect his viewership numbers got a real bump on their back and he’s getting caught in the craze. He has basically picked an outcome and he has gone about defending it even though his early predictions that this would go smoothly have turned out completely wrong.
 
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Aaron Olive

Member
They won't.
I’m sure they already have as a reason to block acquisition and will also point further in court proceedings that they are money 🎩 the market.

Microsoft has inferior talent in game management.

“Microsoft has already shown that it can and will withhold content from its gaming rivals,” said Holly Vedova, the FTC’s Bureau of Competition director, said in a news release. “Today we seek to stop Microsoft from gaining control over a leading independent game studio and using it to harm competition in multiple dynamic and fast-growing gaming markets.”
The European Union announced last month that it had opened an inquiry into the deal, warning that Microsoft “may foreclose access” to Activision’s games”
 

Swift_Star

Banned
Clearly you can't read. Never said it was up to me.

Lol. You know what, my guy? Nevermind. You're not ready.
I think you should learn how to read. The point I was making is exactly that it’s not up to you to decide anything, since you make definitive statements as if you were a regulator. You’re not.
Why would I bet my account with some random guy? It’s a fact that it’s up to the regulators to decide, not up to you lol
Unfortunately for you, that’s up to the regulators to decide, not for you.
Also learn how to read and keep up with the conversation to prevent embarrassing yourself any further that you’ve already done in this thread.
 
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Lasha

Member
I don't get why people care so much either way. Hardcore Sony gamers aren't champing at the bit for Activision games and COD is already on every other platform including Xbox. The deal doesn't really affect the type of gamer who cares about exclusives. If you're not heavily invested in either company then why bother being so emotional?
 
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Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
It invalidates it because Microsoft did not make the existing games unavailable on Playstation. They kept it in PSN just fine.
That right there is the misleading part.
And even if you are trying to appeal to the "future" ("they made future games exclusives!") , at the moment of the transaction they saw no incentives but then PS5 outsold Xbox Series 3:1 in some area and then they saw the incentives to make them exclusive :messenger_tears_of_joy:
That was not the "incentive." Read this again.

VWDeEts.png


The "incentive" was that it'd make financial sense for MS to make those games exclusive -- GP growth increase by X% and Xbox shipment increases forecasts by X. Only then, it'd make sense for MS to make those games exclusive. But MS made Zenimax games exclusive without hitting those numbers.
 
Just watch the video (I did) The fact that when he speaks of MS he keeps saying "Us" and not them or him making jokes about thinking MS should raise the price of CoD to $100 on PS and make it free on game pass. There is a lot of unusual talk in this for him to be unbiased. Most of what I stated can be found in the first 50 minutes of the video. He also said that MS can be trusted because of a deal they made recently with Nintendo which is nothing more at this point than a handshake. It's all over the place and smells of bullshit.

Dude is getting the full champagne treatment by the online Xbox community, I suspect his viewership numbers got a real bump on their back and he’s getting caught in the craze. He has basically picked an outcome and he has gone about defending it even though his early predictions that this would go smoothly have turned out completely wrong.

Scrolling backwards in the thread I knew exactly who you guys were talking about before I went back far enough to get the name. lol. Hoeg seems to be certainly catering to his community (fans of the deal). He's very knowledgeable of the subject but the one-sided, biased feedback he gets from chat is hard for me to ignore. Especially when every couple of minutes during his videos someone is dropping $2, $5, $10 in the chat. Not knocking his hustle.....just not sure if his personal choices are guiding his commentary.
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
Scrolling backwards in the thread I knew exactly who you guys were talking about before I went back far enough to get the name. lol. Hoeg seems to be certainly catering to his community (fans of the deal). He's very knowledgeable of the subject but the one-sided, biased feedback he gets from chat is hard for me to ignore. Especially when every couple of minutes during his videos someone is dropping $2, $5, $10 in the chat. Not knocking his hustle.....just not sure if his personal choices are guiding his commentary.
I've never watched him. Just know his name from EZA sponsorship. If anything I'd say he's divided his audience. Never heard anything but positive things about him until this deal.
 

Swift_Star

Banned
Scrolling backwards in the thread I knew exactly who you guys were talking about before I went back far enough to get the name. lol. Hoeg seems to be certainly catering to his community (fans of the deal). He's very knowledgeable of the subject but the one-sided, biased feedback he gets from chat is hard for me to ignore. Especially when every couple of minutes during his videos someone is dropping $2, $5, $10 in the chat. Not knocking his hustle.....just not sure if his personal choices are guiding his commentary.
the money and attention he’s getting surely is.
 

Aaron Olive

Member
I don't get why people care so much either way. Hardcore Sony gamers aren't champing at the bit for Activision games and COD is already on every other platform including Xbox. The deal doesn't really affect the type of gamer who cares about exclusives. If you're not heavily invested in either company then why bother being so emotional?
It’s a fishy deal all around, they stand to make more money on their own than selling. The COD IP has had its most profitable release ever making 1 Billion in 10 days before the season store was even open. What’s even more scandalous is that Bobby would keep his job despite ongoing sexual misconduct allegations if the deal concluded.
 
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