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Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard

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Re: Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard

#351

Post by NovaDudely »

xxpor wrote: post #34
darknavi wrote: post #2

Microsoft 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…

It would be incredibly stupid for MS to make CoD an xbox exclusive and completely misses the business case for buying Activision in the first place. Remember, MS is in business to make money , not to win the console wars. Buying the CoD (etc) IP at an inflated price and then immediately cutting off more than half of the revenue would be so mind-boggingly stupid, almost to the point of malpractice. This is why they re…

You don't just cut it off in one go, you squeeze them out slowly.

Embrace the business (with money), extend the functionality (Xbox exclusive features), Extinguish the competition (drop support).

Re: Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard

#352

Post by NovaDudely »

kevingadd wrote: post #189
robertlagrant wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Non-"here's my theory as to why this would never happen" counterpoint: they bought Bethesda and made Starfield MS platforms-only.

The following is personal opinion based on publicly available figures, IDK how accurate they are. Skyrim has supposedly sold around 60 million copies over the span of 12 years. Let's be generous and say those sold at an average of $60 each (probably less in practice due to sales, etc.) That's $3.6b USD in raw revenue. Pretty sick! On the other hand, as of 2022 (Skyrim numbers are 2023), Call of Duty as a franchise ha…

You don't just cut it off in a single go, Microsoft make their platforms more enticing. Heck they can do game companies used to and have timed exclusive releases. COD dropping on Xbox 2 months before anyone else.

Microsoft are REALLY good at playing the long game.

Re: Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard

#353

Post by NovaDudely »

shmerl wrote: post #206
darknavi wrote: post #2

Microsoft 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.

I don't think they really care what people think until it becomes a really major issue. MS has been through this these fazes so many times in the past and look at were they are. It doesn't seem to have slowed them down that much.

That lock in of the 90's never really stopped, they just figure out how to make it look better. The only times they gave up on the lock in was when it was starting to look really bad and even then they just pivot the messaging and then try to lock themselves in. Look at MS with "We love Linux", it didn't slow Windows down one bit.

Re: Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard

#354

Post by cman1444 »

NovaDudely wrote: post #314
cman1444 wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree with the opinion that it harms consumers. The economist has an article it recently published that argues that this deal actually helps consumers by speeding up the transition to "streaming" games and cloud gaming as an option. I tend to agree. Just because one large company is buying another large company doesn't mean the deal should be blocked.

> argues that this deal actually helps consumers I'm listening... > by speeding up the transition to "streaming" games and cloud gaming Ewww... no thanks!

It's not the Boogeyman you think it is. You used to have to buy a game for $60 and if you didn't like it? Well too bad, that's $60 down the drain. Now you can just move on to the next one. I get that for enthusiasts owning a physical game may be more desirable, but for the majority of gamers (casual gamers) a subscription based service is a better option.

Re: Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard

#355

Post by elefanten »

tremorscript wrote: post #328
elefanten wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are laws and case law that set standards of varying degrees of precedent that both parties and the judge need to form their arguments around. The losing side can appeal to other courts and, in this case, the FTC can continue their own internal trial that has been scheduled for over a year and a half (surely, purely coincidentally scheduled for a month after the deal would contractually fall through). The same F…

Im sorry. Lets not generalize the problem, lets be specific to this case. Your son is working for Microsoft, it is a billion dollar case, the question is What would you do? What are your standards?

Oh, I shared plenty specific to the case that you've glossed right over. Why does your observation matter more than any of mine?

Do you have a theory of how the tenuous connection you state might induce a district court judge to risk harming her career by making a flimsy decision that can be overturned or, worse, risk criminal prosecution if she was found to be conspiring in illegal dereliction of her duty?

What's the scenario you're implying? You haven't even made an argument. The deal expands a business segment that accounts for less than 10% of Microsoft's revenue, it's not going to make her son rich in stock options. He's 3-4 years into his career and has held an entry-level role at Microsoft less than a year, it's not going to rocket him to the top of the org chart. What's the incentive to induce whatever crimes or corruption you leave unspoken?

You conveniently ignored the argument a sibling poster made that the FTC chose their venue. Why choose this one?

Your take is tabloid pundit banter. Extending such disproportionate knee-jerk prescriptions upon such thin logic would grind any activity to a halt.

Re: Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard

#356

Post by NovaDudely »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #275
hammeringnails wrote: post #273

Someone please correct me if I'm way off the mark here: I assume the reason behind this purchase is to keep Windows relevant as a gaming platform. It looks as though Windows is becoming less relevant overall as a computing platform, and alternative platforms such as Steam Deck are beginning to pose a major threat to one of their major market demographics: Gaming.

Is that true? The game I developed for Steam Deck is actually the Windows application (it runs under Proton on Steam Deck). I suspect most developers are also doing this. No harm to Windows there. Maybe it's the Xbox getting left behind?

Windows has been a decent development platform for Linux via Proton. ;)

Maybe they are just worried about the long game of Proton eventually eroding MS's share? But this looks more like propping up Xbox and Gamepass than Windows losing share (at least short term).

Re: Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard

#359

Post by shmerl »

NovaDudely wrote: post #353
shmerl wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't think they really care what people think until it becomes a really major issue. MS has been through this these fazes so many times in the past and look at were they are. It doesn't seem to have slowed them down that much. That lock in of the 90's never really stopped, they just figure out how to make it look better. The only times they gave up on the lock in was when it was starting to look really bad and eve…

Well, that's what you think competition law should have fixed. But yeah, it's pretty toothless in practice.

Re: Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard

#360

Post by elefanten »

AmericanChopper wrote: post #310
vlozko wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Microsoft have not announced any plans to release that game, or any upcoming CoD game on it. There’s a plethora of articles stating the exact opposite, such as this one: https://afkgaming.com/esports/guide/is-call-of-duty-coming-t... It’s something MS has been saying numerous times, including in the FTC court case. The number of games that are exclusive to a platform that are paid to be that way is actually quite s…

Sorry buddy, you’ve fallen for fake news. Microsoft has said they’ll bring it to Nintendo, not the Switch, and the timeframe they’ve announced for this is sometime in the next 10 years. Most non-tabloid commentators seem to think this means it will either be delivered by a streaming service, or to a yet-to-be announced new console. In any case, if it happens it will have to be accompanied by a shift in Nintendo’s pos…

All market segments have subsets and supersets. Why should the line be drawn where you imply?

Is Sony monopolizing the God of War market because God of War fans understand how those games are differentiated to appeal to their preferences?

The FTC's case that PS and Xbox exist in their own "high-performance console" market is the contrived argument. Honestly, it's dated to even consider consoles their own market. Product planning practice in the games industry these days pretty much looks at 2 markets: the mobile market and the "HD market" (PC + console).

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