Hollowpoint5557
A Fucking Idiot
I dont know what everyone's so upset about? I am now saving 25 bucks a month thanks to this price hike and me cancelling the service. Thanks MS!
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Former FTC Chair: "Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision has been followed by significant price hikes and layoffs, harming both gamers and developers"
- Thread starter Topher
- Start date
Jinzo Prime
Member
Ehhh, the AOL Time Warner merger was worse. Way worse. $165 billion for AOL. Here's a good example of how bad it was:
Activision isn't big enough to crater Microsoft.
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Jinzo Prime
Member
Linda Khan was correct, but also ineffective at her job. Senior lawyers for the FTC were reportedly leaving in significant quantities because of her.
Don't get me wrong, I liked what she said, and she was right, but she couldn't even slow MS down.
Topher
Identifies as young
I remember talking about it at the time in the thread. We were all a bit shocked that she didn't object to the judge when it was revealed that the judge's son worked for Microsoft. It was just bizarre.
ZehDon
Member
No, Khan was not right.
Microsoft didn't establish a dominant platform.
Microsoft didn't hold the titles as exclusives to muscle out competitors.
Microsoft didn't abuse a monopolistic position that stemmed from the acquisition.
Microsoft doesn't have a dominant platform, it's not a monopoly, and it couldn't muscle out anyone - it's competitors punched it in the throat and stole its lunch money.
The price hikes and lay offs are a result of multiple factors. The natural effects of consolidating businesses of that size means lay offs are inevitable, but Microsoft also added AI on top, resulting in massive waves of layoffs as it seeks to, effectively, replace its human workers with digital agents. The price hikes are a result of Microsoft failing to meet its targets with services like Game Pass, and the resulting pivots away from trying to outspend its competitors. But, there's also inflation, tariffs, and general economic uncertainly stemming from an American trade war that makes no financial sense to anyone, giving every platform holder carte blanche to raise their prices to whatever the fuck they feel like.
The regulators predicted the end of the gaming industry, the collapse of Sony, and a complete monopoly held by Microsoft. Today, we're talking about if Xbox is even going to exist in five years.
Microsoft didn't establish a dominant platform.
Microsoft didn't hold the titles as exclusives to muscle out competitors.
Microsoft didn't abuse a monopolistic position that stemmed from the acquisition.
Microsoft doesn't have a dominant platform, it's not a monopoly, and it couldn't muscle out anyone - it's competitors punched it in the throat and stole its lunch money.
The price hikes and lay offs are a result of multiple factors. The natural effects of consolidating businesses of that size means lay offs are inevitable, but Microsoft also added AI on top, resulting in massive waves of layoffs as it seeks to, effectively, replace its human workers with digital agents. The price hikes are a result of Microsoft failing to meet its targets with services like Game Pass, and the resulting pivots away from trying to outspend its competitors. But, there's also inflation, tariffs, and general economic uncertainly stemming from an American trade war that makes no financial sense to anyone, giving every platform holder carte blanche to raise their prices to whatever the fuck they feel like.
The regulators predicted the end of the gaming industry, the collapse of Sony, and a complete monopoly held by Microsoft. Today, we're talking about if Xbox is even going to exist in five years.
kpopSuperstar
Member
Yup, the fear was Game Pass on every system powered by the cloud, eating up the competition.
kikii
Member
I celebrate because I believe they were all fired when the "xbox ambassadors" program was shut down.
Goalus
Member
Yes, gamers want higher prices because cheap subscriptions like Game Pass used to devalue games in an unhealthy way.
Now Microsoft have finally course-corrected and took inspiration from Nintendo in order to celebrate the value of both their hardware and software products.
But for some reason, it doesn't seem right? Strange...
You have to consider the possibility that these lawyers who left are corporate lobbyists, working behind the scenes against the FTC.
If you're in there undercover to defend companies and sabotage the FTC, you'll obviously leave if the head of the FTC forces you to act correctly and prevent acquisitions and mergers.
poppabk
Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
She wasn't. The FTC's argument was that MS would have too much power, would be able to dominate the competition and effectively have a monopoly. Not that MS would struggle and have to raise prices because they couldn't attract customers and would have to grow or stabilize revenue by increasing prices.
Topher
Identifies as young
And the FTC said as much after last year's price hike.
'In the filing, the agency notes "Microsoft's price increases and product degradation—combined with Microsoft's reduced investments in output and product quality via employee layoffs," and calls them "the hallmarks of a firm exercising market power post-merger."'
FTC says I told you judge, I warned you bro, as it unloads on Microsoft for Game Pass price hikes and 'a degraded product' that it says break promises made to seal the Activision merger
The FTC notes that Microsoft didn't mention these hikes when it was talking about bringing CoD to Game Pass subs on day one.
Jinzo Prime
Member
Good point. Linda was right (in the short term) on the consumer protection front, but wrong on the longer anti-competitiveness front, which was ultimately her job to find a strong arguement for.
Badlucktroll
Member
microsoft is bad company 
Unknown Soldier
Member
There are so many receipts waiting in that thread but someone has to go and find them
Jinzo Prime
Member
I really don't see these moves as Microsoft flexing it's market power. I see it as a short squeeze on current subscribers as the service plateaus and tapers off over the next few years.
Gamers aren't at all locked into Gamepass, and there is no exclusive content locked behind the paywall. Nexflix is far more anti-consumer with many shows and movies stuck there that you can't access once you leave.
They are still taking 5 bucks from you!
diffusionx
Gold Member
Everyone except blatant Xbox shills and grifters knew prices were going up. I don't think people expected them to bungle COD and lose hundreds of millions of dollars in year one on it though.
Topher
Identifies as young
That was what she said after last years price hike. Either way, she is now saying all of this is a result of the merger and I firmly believe she is right. That was a bad deal and it should have been blocked.
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solidus12
Member
alabtrosMyster
Member
This is not a celebration of anything, this is the service going near what it actually means to forego all the sales with an insufficient user base.
They painted themselves into a corner.
This is why Sony never adopted this approach, they ran the numbers.
As for "cheap" games, epic can give a couple of games on a weekly basis, Amazon "gives" you games with your Prime sub as well, they just don't give you new releases.
Everybody else understood that to grant access to a game like Call of Duty on release meant the service needed to make billions more for them to recoup the price of the registration.
That also forces gaming companies to raise the price for base games, reduce the occurence of sales, etc. This gives artificial value to the GaaS model Gamepass wants to force down our throats, it's all made up BS, it's all digital, valuation is just whatever the bean counters think you may be willing to pay.
So no, this is not about any company's health, this is about them insisting on making this very high margin business even more predatory to its clients.
If you want phone games, well... just get a phone and don't pollute the ecosystems of actual gamers by encouraging that kind of BS.
Dr. Samuel Hayden
Member
It's pretty clear at this point the ABK purchase killed Xbox (or at least sped up its demise)
poppabk
Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
Exercising what power? You are allowed to do all that shit after a merger - you just can't do it because you unfairly reduced competition through the merger. MS are less competitive now than they were before the merger.And the FTC said as much after last year's price hike.
'In the filing, the agency notes "Microsoft's price increases and product degradation—combined with Microsoft's reduced investments in output and product quality via employee layoffs," and calls them "the hallmarks of a firm exercising market power post-merger."'
FTC says I told you judge, I warned you bro, as it unloads on Microsoft for Game Pass price hikes and 'a degraded product' that it says break promises made to seal the Activision merger
The FTC notes that Microsoft didn't mention these hikes when it was talking about bringing CoD to Game Pass subs on day one.www.pcgamer.com
Topher
Identifies as young
MS is less competitive with ABK than without? Come on.
poppabk
Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
Yeah. They are selling less consoles, and making more games multiplatform. Nothing about that says 'we are competing better against the competition than before'.
GHG
Member
And what "facts" exactly do the corporations present in situations like this?
"Facts" like this? :
And these? :
Topher
Identifies as young
That's just consoles and it isn't like Microsoft was setting the world on fire there before the merger. Factually, they control a much larger chunk of the industry now than they ever have.
Neat
Neo Member
Humans run corporations. Humans run government. Humans are good bad, honest, corrupt, and everything in between. Humans in govt are not inherently more honest than humans in business.And what "facts" exactly do the corporations present in situations like this?
"Facts" like this? :
And these? :
Be skeptical of all.
MatrixReloaded101
Member
He is playing a role… he always has, but the Xbox fanboys just didn't realize that until it was too late.
Topher
Identifies as young
poppabk
Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
Isn't that what we were talking about? Well that and cloud but that was always a stupid argument based off of a lack of understanding of the market.
As a software publisher - their competition were salavating at the deal going through - EA management were ecstatic. BF6 probably exists in its current form because of that merger.
iHaunter
Member
That's the EX FFC-Chairman.
Topher
Identifies as young
There were several aspects of the merger that governments examined.
GHG
Member
I'm all for skepticism, but you referred to "facts". When it's come to all of this there was only one side which managed to provide factual evidence based on previous examples across a multitude of industries. The other side made a bunch of promises and lies that they've failed to keep.
One is empirical, the other is not - so if you're going to be skeptical then you should be more skeptical of the people who are not able to provide you with any evidence or guarantees.
The FTC/CMA can't bill you, Microsoft can.
She was right. She didn't say they will dominate consoles. She said it was a foreclosure risk of content and it was, until it was looking like it was blocked in the EU and UK. MS made concessions to get that through. The FTC also mentioned higher prices and layoffs as a result of the merger. She was right about those. Gamepass may not have grown how MS expected but they still command some market power in subscriptions and cloud gaming which gives the the ability to do this in the first place. the FTC and CMA separated these markets. It's just a much smaller pie than xbox had hoped for and so they're in a phase of milking the userbase earlier than expected.
poppabk
Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
You would have to prove that they always intended to increase prices because of the acquisition. Which they would never be stupid enough to put in writing (ok maybe) but it also probably wasn't their intention and this price increase isn't purely about the impact of the merger.
SlimySnake
Flashless at the Golden Globes
Lina Khan fought the good fight, but like most people in her administration and party, she failed miserably. just being on the right side of issues doesnt mean much. you have to succeed. she allowed that judge who was clearly biased and had a huge conflict of interest to preside upon the case. she fucked up an easy slam dunk case. nothing her FTC did stuck as trump came in and dismantled or overturned almost all of it.
They should learn from trump. thats how you get shit done. fucking making nvidia and amd give the u.s government 15% of all their china sales. then he bought a 15% stake in intel. i didnt even know you could do that. all that posturing from these so-called consumer rights activists and what did they get done? nothing. instead they let u.s corporations layoff anyone they wanted. almost 300k tech sector jobs were lost while she chaired the FTC. you are telling me she couldnt slap them with a fine like trump has done with intel, amd and nvidia? how many jobs she couldve saved by not allowing mass layoffs? zero balls. all talk. be a fucking man next time.
They should learn from trump. thats how you get shit done. fucking making nvidia and amd give the u.s government 15% of all their china sales. then he bought a 15% stake in intel. i didnt even know you could do that. all that posturing from these so-called consumer rights activists and what did they get done? nothing. instead they let u.s corporations layoff anyone they wanted. almost 300k tech sector jobs were lost while she chaired the FTC. you are telling me she couldnt slap them with a fine like trump has done with intel, amd and nvidia? how many jobs she couldve saved by not allowing mass layoffs? zero balls. all talk. be a fucking man next time.
EverydayBeast
ChatGPT 0.001
Success doesn't happen within 90, hell even 1000 days, I know it's the answer people want to see but m$ buying activation and call of duty was meant to deliver a message to Sony.