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[Topher]

"Rogue lobbyist"

 

[DrFigs]

MS argued in court that prices wouldn't rice as a result of the merger. It was insane. The whole trial was pretty ridiculous. You guys had to be there

 

[ShaiKhulud1989]

I have zero understanding of internal USA politics, but I can't blame Khan for firing a bit of venom in public.

Ever since it was revealed that the Judge's son is working for MS, it was a sealed deal regardless of how strong FTC case was. Plus as I understand FTC in general is mildly useful in those types of antitrust movements due to how the American law is structured, but I'm not an expert.

 

[StereoVsn]

I have zero understanding of internal USA politics, but I can't blame Khan for firing a bit of venom in public.

Ever since it was revealed that the Judge's son is working for MS, it was a sealed deal regardless of how strong FTC case was. Plus as I understand FTC in general is mildly useful in those types of antitrust movements due to how the American law is structured, but I'm not an expert.

FTC was pretty terrible at making their arguments and I don't think they even asked for a different judge due to conflict of interest.

Overall, an average law student who is familiar with gaming could have put together a better argument vs a whole team of FTC lawyers.

The intent was good, the execution not so much.

 

[Pop]

MS straight up lied multiple times during that hearing and nothing of consequences will happen

Well besides karma

 

[DevilHunterX0]

Dominating the last place

 

[SkylineRKR]

Yeah. They are selling less consoles, and making more games multiplatform. Nothing about that says 'we are competing better against the competition than before'.

The problem with this deal is that it went above their head. They didn't have the installed base or growth to keep something like CoD exclusive. They tried exclusivity with Starfield and they figured they lost a ton of potential sales.

The plan kind of backfired because on top of Bethesda and ABK staying multiplatform, MS is also putting the likes of Forza and Gears on Playstation nowadays. Likely these acquisitions also caused the gaming division to be noticed by the board of directors. And Nutella obviously wants RoI.

 

[Insanemaelstrom]

Two minds of this.

Firstly, yeah the situation is terrible( layoffs, price increases, etc) as predicted. But the reason and how we got here is entirely different.

FTC's argument was that MS would be too dominant and simply use their infinite warchest to force out competitors.

But what has happened is that Xbox is on the verge of irrelevance.

FTC cannot, in good faith, argue that their arguments were valid. They did a poor job ofarguing their side and a lot of their arguments have proven to be false. Sure, outcome ended up being similar, but just because you end up in the same position doesn't mean your flawed argument wasn't flawed.

 

[SuperC]

Lina Khan don't know what she is talking about and everything she said turned out to be wrong

She said the acquisition would kill fair competition but the opposite happened Sony is thriving while Xbox is on the verge of collapse

She said prices would go up and yeah everything in gaming hardware and software got more expensive Game Pass is thirty dollars which is high for many people but it makes sense for a company that wants to launch AAA games on a subscription service day one, in the end thirty a month for Game Pass is fairer than an eighty dollar Nintendo game but the reality is the service stopped growing and it's unlikely players will accept those prices

She talked about layoffs but just wait the next two years you'll see massive layoffs across all western gaming companies, Did anyone really think Bethesda on its own would be doing better? I don't think so

She talked about exclusives and what happened is Microsoft ended up porting almost everything

In the end PlayStation fans actually benefited from a few Xbox games and from having companies still afloat that could've gone bankrupt like Bethesda

 

[SuperC]

MS argued in court that prices wouldn't rice as a result of the merger. It was insane. The whole trial was pretty ridiculous. You guys had to be there

So everyone can rise the prices except Microsoft?

 

[Mr.Phoenix]

It's not because they consolidated and now have a dominant position in the market. In fact the opposite.

Dominant or retarded position... the outcome was always going to be the same.

You dont spend almost $80B aquring publishers, cannibalize actual sales of your games and give them away in a sub service, all for a user base that cannot generate enough revenue to sustain all that.

That just makes no sense.

And even if that is your strategy, then you have to get your sub base for your service up to some ridiculous numbers. Now how consolidation is justified is that you believe you need to do that to provide enough content to draw in more subscribers. However, if that fails, you need to not only put that content on the platform that generates sales, but also increase the subscription cost.

But even if you did succeed, and you then become the dominant market platform, it would be at the direct expense of everyone else, which basically makes you a monopoly, and then guess what, prices will still go up cause now you answer to no one.

MS got itself in this position because they were stupid and did not actually understand the market they were in, or even their position in it. They never have, and everyone at MS who understood it (OG Xbox and 360 era) no longer works for them.

 

[DrFigs]

So everyone can rise the prices except Microsoft?

Microsoft is one of the largest companies on this planet and if we're going to allow anti-competitive practices like buying up large publishers, then we need some standards to make sure that people aren't worse off. The FTC's arguments were correct. We allowed MS to purchase a large publisher and got layoffs and price hikes.

 

[Heisenberg007]

She deserves an apology from the Green Fanclub.

 

[username12]

Microsoft is the outlier here. No other company has been doing price hikes (following all the money printing) and layoffs (following the excessive hiring spree) after the lockdown years.

 

[laynelane]

All you guys switching to digital and loving these subs are to blame.

"You will own nothing and be happy."

Whose happy? It was a pipe dream to believe that the continued erosion of ownership would be beneficial to anyone but those who control the rights of those products. How long before they charge a "maintenance fee" to manage your digital library?

I'm back to buying physical full time on console. I'm doing my part to fight back. Steam is digital because… no choice.

I never stopped buying physical and never will. You hit the nail on the head - it's the "erosion of ownership". There's other stuff too. Digital was initially promoted as a way to get games cheaper. That never happened. Physical and digital are the same, with physical usually lower over time.

I see more people questioning ownership since this most recent Game Pass debacle started. It's good to see and I hope more people come to the conclusion you did.

 

[ricardo_sousa11]

They spend billions and buy their golden goose only to drown it.

We are living in a simulation, these people cant be this stpid

 

[laynelane]

All of a sudden, Florian Mueller is relevant again, what happened?

He and Hoeg were two of the biggest cheerleaders for the acquisition too (I still remember the ad nauseam Hoeg videos posted in the acquisition thread). You'd think they'd just lay low, but who knows what goes on behind the scenes if public opinion needs to be 'directed'.

 

[Mr Moose]

Phil wanted to make everything exclusive, and he would've gotten away with it too if it weren't for those meddling CMA.

 

[Ebrietas]

I used to love it when clowns on here used to defend MS a company famous for pure greed, monopolist practises and crying to the authorities about other companies. So the AB deal was good for the industry? Staff fired, studios closed and prices increased. The consumer sure is better off.
I'm sure the diehards are loving paying the extra money. It's deserved

Next they're going to argue they need to be able to buy Steam. So they can compete more effectively.

 

[alabtrosMyster]

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.

By giving up on consoles they are no longer competing with Sony and Nintendo, even if technically speaking they are still present on this market, their machines AND services are no longer priced to sell.

So do what you will with that info.

 

[Varteras]

I still can't help but feel like she half-assed her case against them to try and build a separate case that the FTC lacks the ability to function. Thus trying to get Congress to delegate more authority to them. If I recall, there was talk of her saying that was effectively her goal. Less about winning cases and more about proving the FTC needs reforms.

Arguing that it would be bad for Sony if Call of Duty went exclusive was such a brain dead move. I don't remember all the details, but I do remember people asking why she wasn't having her team hit more on Microsoft's history and the risk of escalation through further consolidation.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

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.

"Control" is an interesting word. I would say that they held a big chunk. But there is no way they are controlling shit.

 

[ioo]

lol.....what console war? And what does any of this have to do with consoles? Subject is Game Pass my man.

I know, the problem is that everyone think sony or nintendo are better without even looking at what happening, saying that xbox ruining players and developers while saying the opposite for sony or nintendo. I just said that i'm not harmed and I don't care about the situation cause nothing change for me. I used game pass for years and now i'm just deleting it. That's all. No harm, nothing happened to me as a player after the price hikes. Just deleted my subscriptions and maybe start using pc game pass. Nothing's gonna change cause I can still buy from other sources, physical or digital from pc. But no one here can say much about my words and just laugh cause most of the people know i'm right. Game passes price hikes it's not harming the industry cause we still have choices to do whatever we want and microsoft still irrilevant in the gaming industry even with COD or minecraft cause their games are available everywhere. So now, can you respond why you think my statement it' laughable?

 

[Topher]

I know, the problem is that everyone think sony or nintendo are better without even looking at what happening, saying that xbox ruining players and developers while saying the opposite for sony or nintendo. I just said that i'm not harmed and I don't care about the situation cause nothing change for me. I used game pass for years and now i'm just deleting it. That's all. No harm, nothing happened to me as a player after the price hikes. Just deleted my subscriptions and maybe start using pc game pass. Nothing's gonna change cause I can still buy from other sources, physical or digital from pc. But no one here can say much about my words and just laugh cause most of the people know i'm right. Game passes price hikes it's not harming the industry cause we still have choices to do whatever we want and microsoft still irrilevant in the gaming industry even with COD or minecraft cause their games are available everywhere. So now, can you respond why you think my statement it' laughable?

That's fine, but I never called what you said "laughable". The gif I posted was a joke.

 

[Signalis]

I think Phil Spencer isn't thinking clearly anymore since he got the aids

 

[Ozzie666]

The FTC makes about as much sense as the patent office. Only in America man.

 

[Daniel_Mallorca1985]

Gamers owe Lina Khan an apology after Microsoft price hikes

Microsoft's 50% Game Pass price increase vindicates FTC Chair Lina Khan's warnings, proving her right after courts rejected merger challenge in 2023.

ppc.land

 

[Daniel_Mallorca1985]

 

[Daniel_Mallorca1985]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/07/11/microsoft-activision-ftc-decision/

A federal judge on Tuesday allowed Microsoft to move forward with its $69 billion acquisition of video game maker Activision, in a resounding blow to U.S. regulators' efforts to block consolidation in the tech industry.

The Federal Trade Commission had asked the court to intervene in the deal after it brought an administrative lawsuit last year that alleged the acquisition was anticompetitive. Microsoft is the maker of the popular gaming console Xbox, and the government is concerned that allowing it to acquire Activision and its highly popular game titles would create unfair consolidation in the gaming industry.

In a 53-page redacted decision, Northern California District Court Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley said the FTC had not demonstrated it was likely to show that the deal would substantially limit competition. To the contrary, she said the evidence produced in the litigation indicated that the acquisition might make popular Activision games such as "Call of Duty" available to more consumers.

 

[xanaum]

If you can't afford Game Pass, there's always YouTube to watch those day-one games. That's the energy now.

 

[SABRE220]

Lol now people are saying she is right and backpedaling meanwhile, when the deal was about to go through, most of the posters here were dressing her down and calling her a quack for daring to question the deal and its benefit to gaming etc.

 

[DeepEnigma]

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.

It's a big club, you see.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Honestly, it's more shocking how many people couldn't see this coming. Microsoft is notorious for buying stuff and bleeding it.

The hardcore evangelized fantards knew, they were hoping it would crush Sony. It was painfully transparent the entire time. Buying up third parties were their "exclusives" cheering game.

 

[alabtrosMyster]

One thing is sure, we would have had an awful lot more "Activision" games than we have had "xbox" games in the same time frame since the acquisition.

The repercussions were easy to guess from the start, the only people who couldn't see it just refused to face the obvious.

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.

They meant to say: We give up?