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[FlyyGOD]

I wonder if the judge will get hate mail if she sides with Microsoft in her ruling. I can see jay tech catching a charge.

 

[FoxMcChief]

#SonyConsumersRconsumerstoo

 

[Three]

Which is hilarious and wrong because Sony's customers ARE customers.

So really the judge is saying they care about Microsoft's customers, but no one else's

She thinks they'll just play it on the PC they have and everything will be alright. Doesn't remember talks about price increases based on competition, doesn't remember that most people don't own high end PCs like nvidia said. She's made up her mind that it's not a big deal.

 

[Nydius]

As a near 39yo man who has played games since I could first hold a controller, I don't want this deal to go through purely cause of the precedent it sets moving forward. The industry is already tainted with so much nonsense that has robbed us of potentially quality games by great developers as publishers chase MTX and making everything GAAS or "Live Service". Consolidating more and more large 3rd party publishers under one umbrella is not conducive to a better videogame industry, especially when after acquisition they may be forced to work on projects outside of their scope for no apparent reason.

With that said on a personal level I have disposable income and won't be locked out of anything due to the platforms I own now and will continue to do so in the future, so it's whatever.

Same.

Everyone talks about a second video game crash a la 1983 and I feel like we’re watching it begin in slow motion. The focus on live service games, the acquisition spree (not just Microsoft but also Embracer, Tencent, and Sony), the hyper inflated budgets for AAA gaming that makes their development and profitability increasingly unsustainable, (edit) not to mention the impending subscription wars.

These acquisitions will hurt us all, and the industry, in the long run.

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

I wonder if the judge will get hate mail if she sides with Microsoft in her ruling. I can see jay tech catching a charge.

Already looking for her address

 

[8BiTw0LF]

I just want to say it's really nice hanging out with you guys. No matter the outcome, it's been a nice ride. This slow jazz fucking slaps amirite?

 

[Pollux]

yo how do you get a job at FTC and how much do they earn? asking for a friend

Usajobs.gov and they’re attorneys are probably GS15 so in DC at step one they’re 155,000

 

[hussar16]

Finally the judge called out the FTC for trying to protect Sony and not the consumers.

Protecting sony is protecting consumers as Microsoft doesn't want them

 

[DeaDPo0L84]

I just want to say it's really nice hanging out with you guys. No matter the outcome, it's been a nice ride. This slow jazz fucking slaps amirite?

I feel like I'm at freaking Olive Garden.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

She thinks they'll just play it on the PC they have and everything will be alright. Doesn't remember talks about price increases based on competition, doesn't remember that most people don't own high end PCs like nvidia said. She's made up her mind that it's not a big deal.

It sucks, but it also sucks the FTC lawyers are not challenging her on those very ideas by pointing out stuff like what you've just mentioned. That's what they're supposed to be doing, but they're failing at it.

 

[adamsapple]

Rossco EZ

did we just hear a glimpse of you on the Kick ?

 

[Corrik]

This isn’t about balancing the market share, that’s another stupid perspective. It’s about protecting the process by which competitors gain market share.

How is this not obvious?

You just had a lawyer complain Microsoft could have exclusive Christmas skins in Call of Duty as partial foreclosure and unfair, when Playstation currently has such features already with Call of Duty due to their current agreement with Activision.

Like... hello?

 

[wolffy66]

Which is hilarious and wrong because Sony's customers ARE customers.

So really the judge is saying they care about Microsoft's customers, but no one else's

Lol wut

 

[DrFigs]

The FTC lawyers have lots of other important cases to worry about. They're not videogame market experts!

 

[Varteras]

Already looking for her address

Let me know

 

[Kilau]

FTC's bonus hole got pounded.

 

[LordCBH]

It sucks, but it also sucks the FTC lawyers are not challenging her on those very ideas by pointing out stuff like what you've just mentioned. That's what they're supposed to be doing, but they're failing at it.

Typical useless government employee.

 

[DeaDPo0L84]

Same.

Everyone talks about a second video game crash a la 1983 and a I feel like we’re watching it begin in slow motion. The focus on live service games, the acquisition spree (not just Microsoft but also Embracer, Tencent, and Sony), the hyper inflated budgets for AAA gaming that makes their development and profitability increasingly unsustainable.

These acquisitions will hurt us all, and the industry, in the long run.

Everyone knows this, I expect even the devout Xbox fans on this forum know there isn't a single positive thing that can come from this. But hey it makes for some fun banter back and forth on here which has for the most part been pretty civil.

 

[GHG]

Nah she's just removing ecosystem bias from the equation and counting people as general consumers

The issue with this is the fact that in doing so you're ignoring the potential negative effects this acquisition has on existing customers who game on competing platforms.

They are still consumers and should not be punished for the choices they made prior to this acquisition taking place. So in the interest of "protecting consumers" you need to ensure those aforementioned consumers can't be harmed and ensure there remains space for fair competition moving forwards.

 

[Thirty7ven]

You just had a lawyer complain Microsoft could have exclusive Christmas skins in Call of Duty as partial foreclosure and unfair, when Playstation currently has such features already with Call of Duty due to their current agreement with Activision.

Like... hello?

The lawyer earlier explained that bidding for third party content is fair competition, this isn’t the same. It’s letting one of the competitors choose winners, and the winner is himself of course.

It’s because first party and third party aren’t the same that this merger isn’t considered an horizontal one.

Like… hello?

 

[FlyyGOD]

Everyone knows this, I expect even the devout Xbox fans on this forum know there isn't a single positive thing that can come from this. But hey it makes for some fun banter back and forth on here which has for the most part been pretty civil.

Gamepass access to more games sure is a positive.

 

[FoxMcChief]

lol

 

[adamsapple]

We're back

 

[Darsxx82]

FTC: "We've seen the harm to Sony".

Judge Corley: "It's not the harm to Sony we care about, it's the harm to consumers" -

Judge said she don’t care about the damage to Sony it’s about the consumers

When over and over again your argument is "Jim Ryan says the acquisition is bad for PS" or that "Sony is shown to be harmed" you are exposed to that answer of the judge ...

 

[PaintTinJr]

This is really poor from the FTC lawyer.

Saying it’s not the government’s job to evidence the harm of the agreement when…..it’s quite literally the government suing to block the deal, is profoundly weak.

How do you work that out? The judge already agreed with the FTC lawyer that she had claimed it and said it was a question of the law for her, to read them and decide if they were guarantees or not.

The FTC guy did miss an important point that monitoring the contracts would then fall to the tax payer FTC - which is under staffed and under funded in Lina's words from interviews - which would have discourage against behavioural remedies.

 

[SirKicksalot]

Back with a shitfuck argument lmao

 

[Corrik]

The lawyer earlier explained that bidding for third party content is fair competition, this isn’t the same. It’s letting one of the competitors choose winners, and the winner is himself of course.

It’s because first party and third party aren’t the same that this merger isn’t considered an horizontal one.

Like… hello?

It's a partial foreclosure. It doesn't change. You can see the effects of partial foreclosure already because Sony already engages in it with Call of Duty.

 

[GHG]

And we're straight back to "how not to be a lawyer".

 

[balls of snow]

Let the screwing continue.

 

[Rossco EZ]

We're back

by Azura!

 

[Thirty7ven]

It's a partial foreclosure. It doesn't change. You can see the effects of partial foreclosure already because Sony already engages in it with Call of Duty.

You are ill informed and cannot understand basic principles of market competition.

 

[Not_A-Cop_Maybe]

And if Microsoft use anticompetitive pricing and extortion-level tactics to squeeze a direct competitor of more money to get access to the same games for their customers, what then?

Microsoft doing something like increasing their expected cut for publishing COD on the platform or else they remove publishing of other ABK games on the platform. Or, requiring Sony to pay more for COD access in PS+ Day 1 (we already know they have exclusionary contracts for competing sub services for Day 1 Game Pass content with 3P devs/pubs, btw).

If the FTC had better lawyers we'd see them bringing this stuff up, but they don't so it is what it is.

Sony has this exact same clauses as evident by the Epic Games lawsuits.

If i pay you to put your game on my subscription service- then your god damn right im gonna say you cant do the same for free for someone else's. If the game is multiplatform, you can still spend 70 bucks and but it on your platform of choice.
But if my incentive is that a consumer can try my subscription service for 20 bucks a month or a one time trial and you can decide if its worth spending 70 buck on, then that is a choice for the consumer isnt it?

Aint noone asking Sony to pay extra (ie the 10 year deal they gave them).

All this is showing is that Sony (and MS) can pay to timegate or exclusive shit, but everyones now mad, when MS has just gone- Fuck it- i'll just buy the company. Sony could do this too- they just gotta offer 80 billion.

 

[Kilau]

Juge's son coming into work tomorrow at MS.

 

[Solidus_T]

FTC would have had a better chance picking a NeoGAF poster...

 

[DeaDPo0L84]

Gamepass access to more games sure is a positive.

That's being extremely myopic in the grand scheme of things. Yes, an individual saving $60 in the month of November cause CoD is on gamepass is good for that individual, but looking at the bigger picture that's pretty much where any sort of benefit ends.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

It's a partial foreclosure. It doesn't change. You can see the effects of partial foreclosure already because Sony already engages in it with Call of Duty.

Yes, it's partial foreclosure. It's partial foreclosure that, with ABK as an independent entity, both MS and Sony can engage in contractual bids & offers to gain in order to add value to their ecosystems.

Under MS ownership, it would transform into permanent foreclosure of a partial asset. That's quite different.

 

[Corrik]

You are ill informed and cannot understand basic principles of market competition.

Sure, buddy.

 

[Iced Arcade]

trying to use the dev kit argument is stupid lol

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Holy fucking moly

 

[adamsapple]

Why is the FTC lawyer making a point about dev kits, sending dev kits is an entirely Sony option. They choose to send it early, on time or late.

edit: there you go, Beth bringing up the same point.

 

[SirKicksalot]

How did they come up with this argument after the break?
More importantly, how can I also be this incompetent and get paid?

 

[bender]

PLAYSTATION IS THE BETTER CONSOLE is now the law.

 

[DrFigs]

Does Microsoft still not have ps5 dev kits?

 

[Varteras]

Let the screwing continue.

The Fuckening, if you will.

 

[Corrik]

Yes, it's partial foreclosure. It's partial foreclosure that, with ABK as an independent entity, both MS and Sony can engage in contractual bids & offers to gain in order to add value to their ecosystems.

Under MS ownership, it would transform into permanent foreclosure of a partial asset. That's quite different.

You are missing the point. They said they can't tell what the effect of a partial foreclosure can have in a shift on the market. It already exists, so you can see the shift.

 

[Thirty7ven]

Judge “PlayStation is the better console”

Case Closed

 

[8BiTw0LF]

"PlayStation is the better console"

lol no objection from MS

 

[tmlDan]

Why is the FTC lawyer making a point about dev kits, sending dev kits is an entirely Sony option. They chose to send it early, on time or late.

So you would give your DIRECT competitor your specs and console so they can guess the price and compete against you?

Common dude.

they've been shit but they're right that it affects consumers.

 

[GHG]

She keeps giving him hints about what she cares about, he's not taking them.

She keeps teeing him up, he doesn't take the shots.

This is a massacre.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

How did they come up with this argument after the break?
More importantly, how can I also be this incompetent and get paid?

Work for the government, it's been the best way to be incompetent and get great benefits for centuries