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Axios (Stephen Totilo) Lawyers: Email proves Microsoft’s ABK bid is designed to elimination (Update: MS claims it was a "thought experiment")

Fabieter

Member
I think this moment was probably during Phil’s pitch to Nadella. We’re either in or out, but if we’re in we have to be all in.

I think it was at this point that Phil had already conceptualised Game Pass and the idea of acquiring studios/publishers to starve Sony of revenue and content. And I think it was that plan that convinced Nadella.

The email proves kinda long term plan
 
So would you say then, that admitting you've lost and are last place in your industry, then using the funds of perhaps one of the largest corporations in the world (that itself has a history of litigated anticompetitive practices) to buy out all of your competitors and leave only your failing business in it's place is competitive, or anticompetitive behavior?

Of course that would be anticompetitive, but that isn’t happening.
 

Bernardougf

Member
How can anyone look at the actual facts of the case and think otherwise.
Zy1glBx.jpg
 
Must be all the profits of xbox used for these buyouts.

There’s a gargantuan leap between what MS has done and MS “buying out all competitors and leaving only Xbox in the industry”. We see how hard it’s been for them just to get ABK let alone the entire industry.

And by the way, we saw from Jimmy’s email that he doesn’t see MS foreclosing CoD and that Sony will be just fine.
 
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Fabieter

Member
There’s a gargantuan leap between what MS has done and MS “buying out all competitors and leaving only Xbox in the industry”. We see how hard it’s been for them just to get ABK let alone the entire industry.

And by the way, we saw from Jimmy’s email that he doesn’t see MS foreclosing CoD and that Sony will be just fine.

It's for them to hit critical mass and they will try unil they get blocked with a publishe . And money will bring them some other publishers through the review process.

If they were foe competition they could finance like 150 aaa games with the 68b, but it's not to get content it's about remove content from the competition so making those aaa games from scratch isn't an option even if that would be better for gamers.
 
It's for them to hit critical mass and they will try unil they get blocked with a publishe . And money will bring them some other publishers through the review process.

If they were foe competition they could finance like 150 aaa games with the 68b, but it's not to get content it's about remove content from the competition so making those aaa games from scratch isn't an option even if that would be better for gamers.

And if the ABK deal is any indication, they’ll get blocked. So again, where do they buy out the industry and leave themselves as the only option?

It’s not as simple as “well duh take that 70B and make 150 AAA games!”. The ROI on that 70B buying ABK versus paying for dev or moneyhatting a ton of games are dramatically different. Furthermore I really don’t get why a lot of you are so up in arms about ABK but then are fine with them instead just spending tens of billions moneyhatting games. It’s the same shit either way 🤷‍♂️
 

NickFire

Member
Furthermore I really don’t get why a lot of you are so up in arms about ABK but then are fine with them instead just spending tens of billions moneyhatting games. It’s the same shit either way 🤷‍♂️
There's no way they would pay to make COD exclusive via money hat. It's one thing to take a loss on PS sales when they get 100% of revenue wherever else it sells. Totally different story if they only get 20% and only from Xbox console players.
 

FrankWza

Member
Thank you for your service. And no joke, bro, I don't mean that in a condescending way. Baseball is my all time favorite sport, it actually transcends "just a sport" to me. Now, I am not as fanatical as I used to be, barely watch it now compared to how I was. But that has more to do with the modern political injections and the like, than the beauty of one of God's perfectly designed games. I used to watch Ken Burns Baseball every spring training like a ritual, year in and year out.
There was just a week long mental break given to a guy with a. 216 career average that can't play the field and is a platoon dh. Baseball got soft and way too friendly.
I wouldn't have changed a thing for my avatar pic
I was surprised when I saw de la Cruz that Eric Davis number hasn't been retired.
 

the_master

Member
Update:



In an appeal to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court, lawyers representing a group of gamers suing to block the deal over antitrust concerns point to a purported internal Microsoft email they describe as “uncontroverted evidence that Microsoft had the intention to put its main competition, the Sony PlayStation, out of the market.”
  • The contents of the message are redacted, but the plaintiffs say it was sent by Microsoft’s head of Xbox game studios (Matt Booty) to Microsoft’s chief financial officer for Xbox (Tim Stuart).






So an Xbox exec wants to win the console wars vs the all powerful Playstation…
Isn’t that his job???
Is this all a joke?
 

HeisenbergFX4

Gold Member
There was just a week long mental break given to a guy with a. 216 career average that can't play the field and is a platoon dh. Baseball got soft and way too friendly.

I was surprised when I saw de la Cruz that Eric Davis number hasn't been retired.
Eric the Red was something to watch daily and a funny funny guy

TO ME he is borderline top 20 Red of all time which should warrant a number retirement and a was huge in that 1990 season.

His homerun in game 1 made us believe and people forget home bad he was injured on that diving play in game 4 that literally almost killed him and changed his career arc
 

Fabieter

Member
And if the ABK deal is any indication, they’ll get blocked. So again, where do they buy out the industry and leave themselves as the only option?

It’s not as simple as “well duh take that 70B and make 150 AAA games!”. The ROI on that 70B buying ABK versus paying for dev or moneyhatting a ton of games are dramatically different. Furthermore I really don’t get why a lot of you are so up in arms about ABK but then are fine with them instead just spending tens of billions moneyhatting games. It’s the same shit either way 🤷‍♂️

They could use all the money for actually building games. Its not about moneyhatting. It's going to studios and say hey we like your previous work lets build something big together. Sony build most of their studios from small studios they worked with. It's not about ROI. Avb had what? 7b revenue and 2b profit? That's like 35 years to pay for avb and that's without calculating that game sales will drop once they complete the buyout.

I dont care what you believe but its not rocket science what this is about and Microsoft had a history of market disruption.
 
They could use all the money for actually building games. Its not about moneyhatting. It's going to studios and say hey we like your previous work lets build something big together. Sony build most of their studios from small studios they worked with. It's not about ROI. Avb had what? 7b revenue and 2b profit? That's like 35 years to pay for avb and that's without calculating that game sales will drop once they complete the buyout.

I dont care what you believe but its not rocket science what this is about and Microsoft had a history of market disruption.

Sony pays studios to make exclusive game(s) and then buys them. The idea that this is some kind of honorable way to do business compared to just buying the studio outright is laughable and always has been. It’s hypocrites making excuses. Personally I don’t care about any of it, money hat or buy whatever you want.

They had a tiny amount of studios before they started acquiring and since buying the studios they’ve done exactly what you’re saying you want them to do, expand and support. They’re not going to spend 70B expanding studios or opening new ones just because a mega publisher like Activision which already has studios on the ground and games in the pipeline and big IPs wants to sell for that same 70B.

As you said, it’s not rocket science.
 

Fabieter

Member
Sony pays studios to make exclusive game(s) and then buys them. The idea that this is some kind of honorable way to do business compared to just buying the studio outright is laughable and always has been. It’s hypocrites making excuses. Personally I don’t care about any of it, money hat or buy whatever you want.

They had a tiny amount of studios before they started acquiring and since buying the studios they’ve done exactly what you’re saying you want them to do, expand and support. They’re not going to spend 70B expanding studios or opening new ones just because a mega publisher like Activision which already has studios on the ground and games in the pipeline and big IPs wants to sell for that same 70B.

As you said, it’s not rocket science.

I mean its okay to take a blind eye on logic. It's clear what ms intentions are no matter how much some people downplaying it.
 
I mean its okay to take a blind eye on logic. It's clear what ms intentions are no matter how much some people downplaying it.

Yet the regulators and CEO of Sony don’t agree with you armchair analysts. Some of you could be very rich apparently, if you just changed careers. You know more than everyone else apparently.

Still waiting to see how MS, who is struggling mightily to purchase one very big publisher, will buy the entire industry.
 

Fabieter

Member
Yet the regulators and CEO of Sony don’t agree with you armchair analysts. Some of you could be very rich apparently, if you just changed careers. You know more than everyone else apparently.

Still waiting to see how MS, who is struggling mightily to purchase one very big publisher, will buy the entire industry.

They are struggling? Everyone has approved the buyout without any hesitation besides two countries, sure its a roadblock but most didn't care like at all. And if they get the biggest publisher in the industry than there is no reason to not also add some Bethesda level pub on top of it. And seriously if ms manages to change the industry than there will be dark times ahead of it if netflix and Co is anything to go by. Most of the shows on there are just filler without any value.
 
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They are struggling? Everyone has approved the buyout without any hesitation besides two countries, sure its a roadblock but most didn't care like at all. And if they get the biggest publisher in the industry than there is no reason to not also add some Bethesda level pub on top of it. And seriously if ms manages to change the industry than there will be dark times ahead of it if netflix and Co is anything to go by. Most of the shows on there are just filler without any value.

Oh yeah just the US and UK, not important markets for MS or anything.

And your opinion on streaming video content is fine, it’s your opinion. I happen to think there’s more quality content there then there’s ever been. And even back before streaming blew up, premium subscriptions were still providing some of the best video entertainment available.

But MS doesn’t have anything streaming only or subscription only like Netflix. Everything is available to buy and own.
 

Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
Oh yeah just the US and UK, not important markets for MS or anything.

And your opinion on streaming video content is fine, it’s your opinion. I happen to think there’s more quality content there then there’s ever been. And even back before streaming blew up, premium subscriptions were still providing some of the best video entertainment available.

But MS doesn’t have anything streaming only or subscription only like Netflix. Everything is available to buy and own.
“Let’s make a long lasting decision with long lasting implications impossible to reverse later based on short term promises from a giant company that brags about following laws as if it were an option and that has misled regulators already very recently and has a proven history of market manipulation / monopoly abuse”…. Sure, what can go wrong 😂?
 

Edgelord79

Gold Member
Still not convinced there isn’t going to be a way for Microsoft to overturn this in court.

After reading a bit of the documentation it seems very subjective on either side. Either way I think an appeal could prove much closer than people think.

On a personal level I just don’t care as I’ll get the games I want on whatever platform available. However, it DOES seem some of the conclusions drawn by the regulators showed a lack of awareness about the industry as a whole.
 
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YeulEmeralda

Linux User
C'mon now, it's clearly totally reasonable to spend more than the entire market cap of Nintendo, and 2/3rds of the market cap of Sony on just acquisitions when you're in dead last place in a market. People are just arguing from a place of bad faith and fanboy love.
In all honesty if Sony had 70 billion USD they'd probably do the same.
This is where regulators should step up. But they've failed us before.
 

Fabieter

Member
Still not convinced there isn’t going to be a way for Microsoft to overturn this in court.

After reading a bit of the documentation it seems very subjective on either side. Either way I think an appeal could prove much closer than people think.

On a personal level I just don’t care as I’ll get the games I want where I want. However, it DOES seem some of the conclusions drawn by the regulators showed a lack of awareness about the industry as a whole.

Iam 100% sure they will get this through and it won't be the last publisher either.
 

Darsxx82

Member
So an Xbox exec wants to win the console wars vs the all powerful Playstation…
Isn’t that his job???
Is this all a joke?
It's even worse.....

Now you know the content of that message since The hearing (There are several Tolito uodates un his Twitter too) and.….. guess?...

Matt Botty" :
"There is no way we are going to put our first party games on the competition platform, no effin way"

Gamer lawyer interpretation:
"MS says it wants remove a Playstation from the market"

And this email is from 2019, referring to his games on GForceNow and when MS had neither Bethesda nor, of course, ABK.

And yet this thread is still open...
 
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Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
It's even worse.....

Now you know the content of that message (There are several Tolito uodates un his Twitter) and.….. guess?...

Matt Botty" :
"There is no way we are going to put our first party games on the competition platform, no effin way"

Gamer lawyer interpretation:
"MS says it wants to remove a Playstation from the market"

And this email is from 2019, referring to his games on GForceNow and when MS had neither Bethesda nor, of course, ABK.

And yet this thread is still open...
It is as if you are posting with a lot looot of posts on ignore from anyone without a green tint or without reading anything at all… and yet you still posted…
 
“Let’s make a long lasting decision with long lasting implications impossible to reverse later based on short term promises from a giant company that brags about following laws as if it were an option and that has misled regulators already very recently and has a proven history of market manipulation / monopoly abuse”…. Sure, what can go wrong 😂?
This exactly.
 
Sony pays studios to make exclusive game(s) and then buys them. The idea that this is some kind of honorable way to do business compared to just buying the studio outright is laughable and always has been. It’s hypocrites making excuses. Personally I don’t care about any of it, money hat or buy whatever you want.

They had a tiny amount of studios before they started acquiring and since buying the studios they’ve done exactly what you’re saying you want them to do, expand and support. They’re not going to spend 70B expanding studios or opening new ones just because a mega publisher like Activision which already has studios on the ground and games in the pipeline and big IPs wants to sell for that same 70B.

As you said, it’s not rocket science.
A really dumb view on how things work and without any knowledge on how this megacorps operate : create a lockdown and prevent any competition.
But hey, armchair analysts....
 

Three

Member
And this email is from 2019, referring to his games on GForceNow and when MS had neither Bethesda nor, of course, ABK.

And yet this thread is still open...
"lawyer brought up Booty recommending in March 2021 that Bethesda's games be pulled from Nvidia's GeForce Now (this was the month the Bethesda acquisition closed)"

What was that about "reality and verified"?
 
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