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Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard
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this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2023
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At the end of the day, acquisitions are always bad for customers
This is one of the rare occasions where it’s a good thing. Activision has been a shit show for years. I have a lot more trust in Microsoft to run things.
Market share being consolidated among fewer companies in an industry is always bad for the consumers in that industry. If Activision was meant to go down, it should be through the mechanism of competition, not acquisition.
It might be better in the short to medium term but it will be worse in the long term.
The enemy of my enemy is not my friend applies here I think. Kotick sucks and needs to be gone and I'm glad for that but I don't think this solution to that is much better long term for gamers and consumers.
I personally just feel indifferent to the merger. Definitely won't say Microsoft has been the most guilty of game exclusivity, considering Sony have been pushing timed exclusivity on PlayStation. Nintendo doesn't have take that scrutiny only because their main catalouge are 1st party games.
That said, it sucks that the only way to make someone as repulsively negligent to workers as Kotick depart is by letting him have a golden parachute to another company. Also, I just don't trust Microsoft to handle ABK that well. So far their strategy has been to just scoop up studios and expect them to make smash hits without really helping them innovate. It's that kind of attitude that left Rare a mere shadow of its former self.