[flagged]
Any worse than the 15 years of annual releases already have?
Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard
201–210 of 490 posts
Re: Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
An anti-competitive Microsoft conglomerate to compete with PS# is hardly going to better for consumers than a Nintendo-Sony duopoly. I’d rather we don’t allow bad M&As, even for good reasons.
There really isn't a Nintendo-Sony duopoly. They don't really compete with each other. It's a handheld game system with the ability to dock and work with a TV. The hardware and its gaming capabilities are very different. There is almost no overlap in the games available to each console. Nintendo stopped competing on high performance hardware several generations ago. It competes like a Honda Civic competes with a Chev…
> They don't really compete with each other.
That's not true. Both sides have made handhelds as well as full gaming consoles.
Just because Nintendo's current focus is the handheld switch and Sony dropped their handheld for now doesn't mean things won't change.
Re: Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
Money in itself is not an argument for FTC involvement. E.g. the wedding industry is also enormous, within an order of magnitude of the video game industry in the US.
If weddings were monopolized by General Vowes then it would have been a duty of FTC to look into it.
That's just it though -- video games are not "monopolized" in any meaningful sense. A particular IP may be "monopolized" -- e.g. owned by a particular company that has more or less of an interest in producing cross platform versions. But that's not really a monopoly, is it?
Re: Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard
#204Is this hyper-competitive or anti-competetive? The objective of business is to win, but if a business is too dominant, then they have the ability to extort customers. I don't see how customer extortion is born out of this. It's fair and in the spirit of a healthy ecosystem.
I think Microsoft’s reason for why they feel they need this is exactly the reason why this is bad. Shouldn’t Microsoft build a compelling cloud gaming service that both customers want to pay for, and publishers want to publish on? Microsoft should build good gaming hardware and services, and people buy them based on the merits of those products rather than acquiring companies just to prop up their efforts and otherwi…
Microsoft is getting their butts kicked on exclusives from Sony. Nothing wrong with them buying their way to better exclusives
Re: Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
How would players be harmed by an IP changing hands and being made exclusive on a particular platform?
For one, lack of consumer choice. To play those games, I would need to buy an Xbox, whereas for the last 20 years, Call of Duty, etc. has been multiplatform.
That's literally one game. That's it. Lack of consumer choice when it comes to a single title shouldn't be something that the FTC is getting involved in. Even when you expand that to all the titles that activision/blizzard produce we're talking a tiny drop in a literal ocean of consumer choice.
Re: Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard
#206Microsoft employee here, opinions my own. I work in gaming at Microsoft and I really enjoy it. I think Microsoft gives us a ton of space to explore and make our own impact and I am a huge fan* of Phil Spencer. > Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision has been described as the largest in tech history. It deserves scrutiny. That scrutiny has paid off: Microsoft has committed in writing, in public, and in court to keep C…
Why can't MS play along with the industry and support Vulkan on Xbox though? That would make them not look like the worst lock-in examples of the '90s.
Feels like these kind of issues are what anti-trust should have handled.
Re: Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
If weddings were monopolized by General Vowes then it would have been a duty of FTC to look into it.
That's just it though -- video games are not "monopolized" in any meaningful sense. A particular IP may be "monopolized" -- e.g. owned by a particular company that has more or less of an interest in producing cross platform versions. But that's not really a monopoly, is it?
Sony and Microsoft are buying game developers left and right. Will the courts allow Microsoft to buy Sony gaming business?
Microsoft is also getting ready to eat Steam’s lunch for a while on the PC side. Will that be allowed to go through?
Re: Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard
#208Microsoft employee here, opinions my own. I work in gaming at Microsoft and I really enjoy it. I think Microsoft gives us a ton of space to explore and make our own impact and I am a huge fan* of Phil Spencer. > Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision has been described as the largest in tech history. It deserves scrutiny. That scrutiny has paid off: Microsoft has committed in writing, in public, and in court to keep C…
Why would you be a huge fan of the man who’s single handedly responsible for sinking the Xbox IP ship to the point of having to monopolize the industry to right the ship?
I’m surprised people didn’t wake up with the One era lies he kept pushing, and given HNs general distaste for “marketer talk”, how can one be a fan of a dude that every time he opens his mouth, it’s marketing talk (when it’s not a lie). This dude would constantly say shit like “the console wars are stupid. We need to all get along”. And then when pressed about “hidden DGPU” that he knew didn’t exist, he lies and responds “we are not letting Sony have a hardware advantage”. This dude is a scumbag.
He’s been terrible for Xbox, and now his horrid management of Xbox has led to being terrible for gaming in general.
Big fan? Nah.
Re: Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard
#209Microsoft saw Sony’s acquisition of Bungie as open season and they’re making moves now to compete. Good for them.