FTC Seeks to Block Microsoft's Acquisition of Activision Blizzard

[Robin Seina]

I agree with merger wholeheartly and I think, that it will be good for A-B, if only to get Bobby Kotick out (well with golden parachute, but out). Also it is quite hypocritical from Sony to say this merger will limit the competition on the market, when Sony itself hoards game titles and studios for its own platform
Also I am surprised by FTC stance, since many FTC decisions were political ones, aimed at support of home grown industry. From USA POW, Sony is a foreign entity.

 

[Bomby569]

From USA POW, Sony is a foreign entity.

xenophobia?

 

[Robin Seina]

xenophobia?

Hardly, I am a Czech. And Sony is a Japanese company (with local branch) operating on US soil.

 

[EatingDirt]

Lots of strange comments here hoping for the giant megacorporation, Microsoft, to fix their perceived shortfalls of the gaming industry with their money for... reasons?

Consolidation of power into a handful of companies in any industry is never good for the consumer. This should be obvious for PC hardware enthusiasts on this website (See 2 corporations owning 99% of the discrete GPU market, and the GPU price creep as a result).

We are the consumers; this would not be good for us. There's not much more to be said.

 

[trsttte]

Heck yeah!!! There goes the golden parachute Bobby Kotick was counting on, hopefully he and his cronies may still see the inside of a jail cell with all the cases that mounted on.

Good. Now Activision can be left swimming in its own piles of horse manure.

Its going to fall apart one way or another, because they've systematically been milking every franchise and the customer is starting to walk away. If CoD falls apart, the company will die. Good riddance, have fun re-releasing your utter shite on mobile.

Not likely, if EA is still kicking, Activision Blizzard King can keep going for multiple years on King in app purchases alone.

Also it is quite hypocritical from Sony to say this merger will limit the competition on the market, when Sony itself hoards game titles and studios for its own platform

The thing is size, compare the acquisitions from Sony to the ammount of stuff Microsoft has been hording of recent. Zenimax (Bethesda et al) alone is problably worth more and has more active properties than everything Sony bought.

And Sony is a Japanese company (with local branch) operating on US soil.

That's a very reductive view. Sony Interactive Entertainment is a subsidary group composed by an LLC based in California and an Inc. entity based in Japan. The parent company - Sony Corporation of America - as the name indicates is based in the US and part of the conglomerate based of Japan.

So it's not as simple as "it's a Japanese company" and besides, any company at this scale should be considered de facto global.

As for the FTC intervention, going by the argument that it's just because of sony (it's not), the FTC has to regulate and ensure fair competition in the US market, Sony is a major player in the US market so it really doesn't matter if they are American or not for the FTC intervention.

 

[OneMoar]

if it serves bobbie kotics head on a platter I am for it
fuck off ftc

 

[thunderingroar]

Didn't follow a lot of console news, but the Starfield exclusive sounds like a ultra dick move.

Not really that dick move in my opinion, also bethesda always leaned more towards xbox and besides, sony has tons of exclusives so i cant really feel bad for them. Heres Todd talking about it

 

[Vayra86]

Not really that dick move in my opinion, also bethesda always leaned more towards xbox and besides, sony has tons of exclusives so i cant really feel bad for them. Heres Todd talking about it

Wha... What planet are you on? Bethesda leaning towards Xbox?! When? All they did for consoles was porting PC content! Elder scrolls Online and almost everything else was 'PC first'... At best xbox and pc released together.

Modding was and still is PC first too & their games literally still float on mod support. They dont even bugfix proper, they just copy over what modders fixed and release it as yet another Skyrim

 

[SomeOne99h]

Wha... What planet are you on? Bethesda leaning towards Xbox?! When? All they did for consoles was porting PC content! Elder scrolls Online and almost everything else was 'PC first'... At best xbox and pc released together.

Modding was and still is PC first too & their games literally still float on mod support. They dont even bugfix proper, they just copy over what modders fixed and release it as yet another Skyrim

Oh please, don't mention the unofficial patch that still do the fixes, the last version was released in 18 Sep 2022. Read the gigantic change logs, version one is in 2012-04-07.

https://www.afkmods.com/Unofficial%20Skyrim%20Special%20Edition%20Patch%20Version%20History.html

 

[zlobby]

it really makes no sense to let this gigantic companies get even bigger, in the end everybody loses, employees, customers

In general, it's true. Tell me however, how good Activision is now that it's not swallowed by the 'big bad M$'?

Not really that dick move in my opinion, also bethesda always leaned more towards xbox and besides, sony has tons of exclusives so i cant really feel bad for them. Heres Todd talking about it

Time for a new Skyrim yet?

 

[chrcoluk]

it really makes no sense to let this gigantic companies get even bigger, in the end everybody loses, employees, customers

Agree here, it probably overall decreases innovation and the amount of people employed.

It's been explained already. Microsoft can lose money ad infinitum with the Xbox division artificially hurting competition. It already does with Game Pass. A stronger position would only accelerate the erosion.

They make a loss on the S as well. can easily afford to.

 

[ice_v]

In general, it's true. Tell me however, how good Activision is now that it's not swallowed by the 'big bad M$'?

If I may answer that last part...So now all of a sudden if a megacorp is not performing "good" by your metrics, they should be automatically swallowed by another megacorp?
Whatever the f**k happened to "If you run your company like dogs**t wrapped in cats**t, don't be surprised when you'll see it go down the s**tter" ??
BTW...ABK financially is actually doing just fine. Xbox division on the other hand....

 

[Vayra86]

. Maybe some people at the top are over compensating themselves, something isn't right, that's for sure!

This is a trend. But its not about what console anyone prefers at all. Console wars exist in south park.

 

[Bomby569]

In general, it's true. Tell me however, how good Activision is now that it's not swallowed by the 'big bad M$'?

that's not relevant at all. That's like saying you can marry your daughter if her husband is bad.

 

[Dredi]

Didn't follow a lot of console news, but the Starfield exclusive sounds like a ultra dick move. Still amazes me that it somehow still pays out to exclude 25 million potential customers.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/06/bethesda-vp-offers-apology-for-starfields-absence-on-ps5/

the thing is, it does not pay out to withold it from ps5. According to the filings made, BY MS, to european officials, it makes no financial sense FOR MS to do that. MS does so anyway, effectively burning money to do it.

Great job, let the investors rejoice!

 

[trsttte]

the thing is, it does not pay out to withold it from ps5. According to the filings made, BY MS, to european officials, it makes no financial sense FOR MS to do that. MS does so anyway, effectively burning money to do it.

Great job, let the investors rejoice!

If it forces more users into the Xbox ecosystem instead of into Playstation it makes for a good long term growth strategy....

...and also an anti thrust violation

 

[Skimba]

Steam is the biggest and didn't bought any studios. If it's about consoles i think this cannot be compared to anything Nintendo or Sony ever did. Sony never bought a game company this big.

Microsoft bought and created studios in the past only to mostly destroyed everything.

That's very true. Microsoft strategy to grow also in gaming industry has been to buy out smaller competition. But this strategy will only work for so long.

 

[thunderingroar]

Wha... What planet are you on? Bethesda leaning towards Xbox?! When? All they did for consoles was porting PC content! Elder scrolls Online and almost everything else was 'PC first'... At best xbox and pc released together.

Modding was and still is PC first too & their games literally still float on mod support. They dont even bugfix proper, they just copy over what modders fixed and release it as yet another Skyrim

Im not sure if you watched the clip but i meant that between PS and XBox, Bethesda was always leaned more towards Xbox. I know that PC was in the first seat, they even started with ms dos games

 

[Dredi]

If it forces more users into the Xbox ecosystem instead of into Playstation it makes for a good long term growth strategy....

...and also an anti thrust violation

Their own calculations in the submitted statements to eu officials said that it would not be a viable growth strategy.

 

[CapNemo72]

It would be beneficial for both SM and Activision for this acquisition to go through.

It would be beneficial for all those that have GamePass (I think it is one of the rare subscriptions that are worth their money, especially if you do not have your game library already).

They offered CoD to be still on PlayStationfor next 10 years . If they (MS) going to create/publish new IP, how is that different than when Sony has exclusives?

And the fact we get some of those Sony exclusives couple of years later on PC is because Sony wants more money, not because they "love" PC gamers.

I call this BS and it will be bad for Activision in the long run (as it seems they do not have the management that is up to the task vs MS who has). Which will,eventually be bad for the same folks FTC is trying to protect here.

 

[Dredi]

It would be beneficial for both SM and Activision for this acquisition to go through.

It would be beneficial for all those that have GamePass (I think it is one of the rare subscriptions that are worth their money, especially if you do not have your game library already).

They offered CoD to be still on PlayStationfor next 10 years . If they (MS) going to create/publish new IP, how is that different than when Sony has exclusives?

And the fact we get some of those Sony exclusives couple of years later on PC is because Sony wants more money, not because they "love" PC gamers.

I call this BS and it will be bad for Activision in the long run (as it seems they do not have the management that is up to the task vs MS who has). Which will,eventually be bad for the same folks FTC is trying to protect here.

MS has management that is up to the task? How?
Gamepass is good value only because MS is burning money like no tomorrow to grow their customer base. Consoles being sold with silly losses and gamepass is likely not profitable on it’s own. Good for the consumer for sure though, just don’t go thinking 10 years ahead thinking that it’s going to stay that way.

 

[Gucky]

I tell you, most of the cost of ActivisionBlizzard comes from Candy Crush...
And Blizzard? They are long past their prime...

 

[Morgoth]

kinda was hoping for blizzard-activation to get a new management. atleast microsoft bought up bethesda. bethesda ruined quite allot.. even stuff from IDsoftware... and fallout...

would love to see new starcraft content under supevision of microsoft

 

[Mussels]

Steam is the biggest and didn't bought any studios. If it's about consoles i think this cannot be compared to anything Nintendo or Sony ever did. Sony never bought a game company this big.

Microsoft bought and created studios in the past only to mostly destroyed everything.

Steams a distributor more than anything

Imagine steam trying to buy sonys Playstation division, there'd be immediate suspicion they plan to shut down playstation as the world knows it and have the PS6 a steam box in disguise

 

[Bomby569]

Steams a distributor more than anything

Imagine steam trying to buy sonys Playstation division, there'd be immediate suspicion they plan to shut down playstation as the world knows it and have the PS6 a steam box in disguise

they all use different hats, publishers, platform owners, they own game studios. Here the question is more the platform problem, if MS didn't own a platform for the games (Xbox console and MS store) there wouldn't be any problem as they would just put them on the other platforms.

If Steam started buying studios the problem would be the same.