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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

#271

Post by lesuorac »

SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #194
lesuorac wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But there's nothing dishonest with Canada trying to block the purchase on the shoe factory on the grounds that they don't believe you'll actually sell to them considering they legitimately don't believe you. Perhaps you may feel that Canadians can be responsible for making their own shoe companies that sell to Canada. Then bring up that as your argument instead of having "oh yeah, I'll totally sell to you" as your ar…

What is dishonest about MS buying Activision? Something that hasn’t happened yet but you are judging them on regardless?

Well, your comment is flagged so I can no longer quote from it.

But from what I remember is that you were accusing people of being dishonest because they said that Twitter could have an alternative but people aren't saying that Sony can just make a CoD alternative.

And I'm saying its not dishonest because A) its different people and B) Microsoft made a claim and these response are directly in response to that claim.

Re: Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard

#272

Post by tguedes »

TheCaptain4815 wrote: post #224

What a joke. Because Microsoft is now failing as a gaming company the past 10 years, they’ve been allowed to swallow up competiton. Practically every game they’ve released or worked on the past 5 years has failed. Halo Infinite might literally be the biggest flop in entertainment history. Because of Azure they’re able to absorb these losses and continue to consolidate and eat the competiton. There’s tons of examples…

It’s funny that you mention Sony considering almost all of their first titles are from studios they’ve bought over the last 15 years. I guess it’s fine when Sony did it in the past to get ahead of the competition but now when Microsoft is doing it, it’s anticompetitive.

The fact is the only way Microsoft becomes competitive again is for the industry to switch to streaming games. Thats why they’re buying all these studios. If Microsoft isn’t successful in the switch to streaming games, they are out of the gaming business cause they’ve lost the console wars and there’s no recovering at this point unless Sony significantly fucks up.

Re: Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard

#273

Post by hammeringnails »

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.

Re: Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard

#274

Post by atomicUpdate »

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #252

This fight isn't over yet. Nevermind the misleading title. The fight is only beginning. FTC lost on the injunction, which was only sought when MSFT brazenly threatened to close the deal when it learned it would not be approved. MSFT still has a monkey on their back. Khan is far from giving up. Perhaps FTC can get a stay pending an appeal to the 9th Cir. The July 18 deadline to close is rapidly approaching.

This sounds the same as the student loan forgiveness people saying the Supreme Court decision is just the start of Biden’s fight. “He’s not defeated, this is just a small loss but he’ll definitely win the war.”

Khan has lost 2 major cases recently, which isn’t a good look for her tenure so far. I don’t see how this case is recoverable considering how poorly it’s gone so far. With the EUs backing and the short time table, this deal seems essentially approved.

Re: Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard

#275

Post by JKCalhoun »

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?

Re: Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard

#277

Post by vlozko »

lockhouse wrote: post #107
mtsr wrote: post #87

Earlier 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…

I don't really buy this. There's only so many much time individuals can/will commit to playing video games and spend on accessories. There'll be an overlap of those who can afford the time/money to use both a Switch and a PS5. And with consoles, it's often game sales that matter more than hardware as Nintendo is the only company that makes some money off of its hardware.

Quality of games doesn't matter so much. If someone is spending hours playing Tears of the Kingdom, that's time not spent on playing games on another console.

Even with your analogy there will be some people who can afford 2 cars and drive them for different occasions but others only dedicate to just one. And even then a person can only drive one car at a time.

Re: Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard

#278

Post by jaredhallen »

Pufferbo wrote: post #222
Aeolun wrote: post #172

This is weird. The judge says that because there won’t be any anticompetitive effects in the next 10 years (because MS made a pinky promise), this merger is fine? What about after those 10 years? What about anything not Call of Duty?

10 years is also nothing in game development. Games now can take up to 7 years from conception to release, and then there is post release content. Based on the “10 years”, that would mean like what, 1 game out of each series would be cross platform? And for Sony, they would need to start developing a competent competitor to Call of Duty immediately. Or Sony could just buy EA and create a Titanfall 3 since I guess it’…

I get your point for the industry at large. For example, Skyrim 2011. ES6, 2026? Maybe? But CoD, I swear, you sneeze and there's a new title. CoD: Modern Warfare 2: Black Ops: 2023 reboot. For the record, I'm mostly being tongue in cheek here, but the franchise does seem to release unusually frequently.

Re: Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard

#279

Post by vkou »

re-thc wrote: post #12
lesuorac wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How does this make anyone feel any better? What happens after 10 years? What happens in less than 10 years if they don't abide by it? Does Activision get split back out? I doubt it. We're long past the point where you can just set rules/laws and companies will abide by it. We need to be at the point where we also list the punishment ahead of time.

> What happens in less than 10 years if they don't abide by it? Likely nothing. I don't understand why people believe in these things. > We're long past the point where you can just set rules/laws and companies will abide by it. What's the rule / law here anyhow? There are always workarounds, e.g. it says it will keep it in parity with xbox... well what if they called a new console something else?

> Likely nothing. I don't understand why people believe in these things.

Likely Sony will take them to the cleaners.

Re: Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard

#280

Post by taeric »

maroonblazer wrote: post #265
taeric wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oddly, I feel the writing is on the wall for this one. Minecraft would be a perfect game for the PSVR2, and yet?

People don't want to play Minecraft in VR. Witness Minecraft on Oculus.

It is on the PS VR1. And my family would love to play it on our system. Such that I can't believe it is "nobody."

Fair if you want to posit that VR is a niche market. But.... honestly, so is the entire Xbox market.

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