Microsoft / Activision Deal Approval Watch |OT| (MS/ABK close)

Do you believe the deal will be approved?


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Yep. They had plenty of evidence to show Microsoft's intent. How untrustworthy it is. They should have hammered on the nascent cloud market when Nadella said himself it was a new market with potential. That Kotick said GamePass is "value destructive" and why it is that MS is adamant on making things a race to the bottom. Cornered them over intent when the CMA is still blocking the deal. Instead, this babbling idiot of a lawyer that any person here could have done better than. Now they're gonna leave it to the UK to decide.
Exactly!

And honestly Koticks's comment is hilarious and clearly biased. Hes in charge of a company that makes software TO MAKE MONEY. If he makes something that gets capped at making 1billion because its only on gamepass, then he isnt guaranteed making more on other platforms if people have to pay 70 bucks everytime. No shit? is 1 billion good? yes- Is the change of making a min 1 billion better? hell yes?

And now - instead of saying "well consumers will flock to this choice and damage the others in the industry" he goes- Jim Ryan said- bruh- use your data! then back it up with A competitor also agrees with this.
 
Make It Rain Money GIF by Tim and Eric


money indeed buy the best lawyers

Let this be a lesson to everyone. If you can't afford a decent lawyer then you might be better off representing yourself provided you can keep your emotions in check (I've done it before due to a severance dispute with a former company and won).

I'm really struggling to believe the level of incompetence I've heard.
 
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Idk I guess I missed the parts where the FTC lawyer flubbed it, but he sounded fine to me towards the end. The thread reactions have been so negative
 
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Final Fantasy 6 came out this year guys

Technically correct, as the pixel remaster

LOL the judge gave the FTC 10 minutes as a mercy because she killed them too thoroughly, gotta clean up the corpses before they can continue


FTC lawyers:

giphy.gif
 
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Let this be a lesson to everyone. If you can't afford a decent lawyer then you might be better off representing yourself provided you can keep your emotions in check (I've don't it before due to a severance dispute with a former company and won).

I'm really struggling to believe the level of incompetence I've heard.

Topher has been right so far.. next up CMA i guess
 
Much less workload and far fewer psychopaths to deal with.

I cannot begin to express to you how hideous private law firms can be.
To second this, I'm busy as FUCK day to day, but 4:30 hits and I can just leave. I make less than my buddy doing M&A but my life is so much more relaxed. I get out at 4:30 and get to go hang out with my kid all afternoon. My buddy is working until 10 pm easy.
 
FTC is being asked to prove the future here, of course they will look like clowns either because they attempt to or don't attempt to.

The judge and the MS counsel are basically trying to change the purpose of these hearings.
 
The way the Judge just had to correct the FTC lawyer that it isn't about Sony, but the consumer is all that needs to be said. The FTC is trying to protect Sony this whole time and not the consumer, which was a losing strategy from the start.
 
FTC needs to be restructured. It shouldn't be purely like the CMA cause you want actual appeals but this weak sauce ain't gonna cut it
 
Here's the thing, when the MS lawyer brayed 'if this was a horizontal acquisition', the FTC lawyer needed to immediately and clinically explain how the deal, despite being notionally vertical, has the very same effect as a horizontal one.

It represents market consolidation rather than supplier acquisition.

That was the argument the FTC needed to work towards.

Instead, he focussed on Santa skins.
 
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Finally the judge called out the FTC for trying to protect Sony and not the consumers.

The whole point is the market, competition, innovation.

Of course in the end it's about how it affects consumer's choice.

But to want to frame it as "consumers aren't harmed, they can just accept their reduced choice and pick up what's available" this is not an acceptable perspective.
 
As a near 39yo man who has played games since I could first hold a controller, I don't want this deal to go through purely cause of the precedent it sets moving forward. The industry is already tainted with so much nonsense that has robbed us of potentially quality games by great developers as publishers chase MTX and making everything GAAS or "Live Service". Consolidating more and more large 3rd party publishers under one umbrella is not conducive to a better videogame industry, especially when after acquisition they may be forced to work on projects outside of their scope for no apparent reason.

With that said on a personal level I have disposable income and won't be locked out of anything due to the platforms I own now and will continue to do so in the future, so it's whatever.
 
I agree that Microsoft is biting off more than it can chew with all these studios... i wouldn't be surprised to see some restructuring in the not so distant future. The overhead has to be completely out of control for one company to handle efficiently.
Because their end goal is IP's, not studios

Which tbh is the more successful approach, Talents come and go yet IP's stays forever

Just take a look at MGS3 remake trailer views vs that of Death Stranding 2 on youtube ? (Mind you, there's a 6 month gap between announcements)
 
Well I just hope if ms buys whole industry besides Sony that they keep Steam around and an option to play games on dedicate hardware. I don't want rent to play on crap cloud.
 
The whole point is the market, competition, innovation.

Of course in the end it's about how it affects consumer's choice.

But to want to frame it as "consumers aren't harmed, they can just accept their reduced choice and pick up what's available" this is not an acceptable perspective.
If you take the FTC Economic assessment completely as correct, it makes Sony and Microsoft more competitive, not less. The expected shift more closely balances them.
 
I cannot fucking believe the FTC is STILL trying to angle this on console concerns to Sony. Jesus Fucking Christ. No other regulator is worried about that. Cloud was the angle and you rubes are still going "But poor Sony..."
 
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But Sony customers are not Microsoft costumers so she cares about business fairness which is what all of this about.

I mean by all accounts COD is still going to Sony so who cares lol.

And if Microsoft use anticompetitive pricing and extortion-level tactics to squeeze a direct competitor of more money to get access to the same games for their customers, what then?

Microsoft doing something like increasing their expected cut for publishing COD on the platform or else they remove publishing of other ABK games on the platform. Or, requiring Sony to pay more for COD access in PS+ Day 1 (we already know they have exclusionary contracts for competing sub services for Day 1 Game Pass content with 3P devs/pubs, btw). Both of those things would affect access to COD content for customers on Sony's platform, in ways unfair to the platform holder since a direct competitor (Microsoft) controls the supply of that content now.

If the FTC had better lawyers we'd see them bringing this stuff up, but they don't so it is what it is.
 
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If you take the FTC Economic assessment completely as correct, it makes Sony and Microsoft more competitive, not less. The expected shift more closely balances them.

This isn't about balancing the market share, that's another stupid perspective. It's about protecting the process by which competitors gain market share.

How is this not obvious?
 
I cannot fucking believe the FTC is STILL trying to angle this on console concerns to Sony. Jesus Fucking Christ. The no other regulator is worried about that. Cloud was the angle and you rubes are still going "But poor Sony..."
I mean they'll also talk about cloud next. The takeaway from the CMA stuff was that it was surprising because few thought cloud would be the reason the deal would be blocked.
 
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