Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard (www.theverge.com)

submitted 1 year ago by narwhal@lemmy.ml to c/gaming@lemmy.ml

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[-] PerfectedInterest@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago

The title is a little misleading. This ruling is only regarding the preliminary injunction. There is still an ongoing suit with the FTC and we will need to wait for that to be resolved. However, knowing how these things go, Microsoft will make a ton of promises about creating jobs, keeping their content available to everyone, and agreeing to play fair. They will get approval and immediately turn around and terminate a ton of jobs, start making things exclusive, and backtrack on their promises. Then…nothing will happen. There will be no repercussions. Rinse and repeat.

[-] SatouKazuma@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

Thank the GOP for basically ridding the US of antitrust law, which is now basically no longer a thing.

[-] chungusam0ngus@iusearchlinux.fyi 8 points 1 year ago

contemporary democrats are not any better, they make hella frequent concessions to anti-competitive business practices under the guise of licensing or stimulus

[-] mojo@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago

This is why US democrats are considered center-right compared to the rest of the world.

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[-] absentthereaper@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 1 year ago

And then the moment a union starts getting buck, out come the democrats with the freshly-oiled whips...

[-] SatouKazuma@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

True.

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[-] mojo@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

The guys who claim capitalism works because a free market will create better things through competition. Guess they weren't so much for the competition stuff and just became puppets for corporations. We also have it completely legal to openly bribe politicians which makes zero fucking sense, except we call it lobbying so it somehow becomes okay.

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[-] thoro@lemmy.ml 24 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Capital wins again. If only the FTC didn't sit on its ass for the last 40 years, maybe such market consolidation wouldn't be allowed and normalized.

Also shout-out to this comm. The Beehaw community seems delighted. You can sometimes really tell which instances skew toward leftists vs liberals

[-] HaiZhung@feddit.de 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The fact that it was challenged at all is a huge step in the right direction. Couple of years ago, the FTC wouldn’t even bat an eye with these mergers. The new chair, Lina Khan seems to be determined to reduce the power of monopolies.

Which is a good thing, if this isn’t obvious.

The problem lies with the complete out of touch judges now.

[-] fruitywelsh@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago

Oh no, those judged seem touched. Maybe the need another sponsored yaht trip to clear their heads.

[-] UnverifiedAPK@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

If only the FTC didn't sit on its ass for the last 40 years

That's more on the money than you think. Microsoft mostly won because the FTC didn't clamp down on Sony being anticompetitive which "forced" Microsoft to make these acquisitions. This situation is bad, but the alternative with Sony exclusivity deals all over the place was worse.

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[+] dontcarebear@lemmy.ml 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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[-] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 24 points 1 year ago

At the end of the day, acquisitions are always bad for customers

[-] Redrum714@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] silent_clash@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 1 year ago

It might be better in the short to medium term but it will be worse in the long term.

[-] AnAnxiousCorgi@lemmy.reddeth.com 7 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] BubsyFanboy@szmer.info 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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.

[-] Eggyhead@kbin.social 13 points 1 year ago

I might be a little more upset if I could remember the last activision blizzard game I felt was worth playing.

[-] mojo@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

Overwatch 1 the first two years or so was pretty sick. Was definitely one of the most funs I've played. Now it's just skin shop with some maps to dress up in.

[-] HaleEndGrad@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 1 year ago

You're not excited about Call Of Duty number 24?

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[-] Bobert@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You can "rah rah" about exclusivity all day long. What needs to be acknowledged is how huge this is in terms of developers under one company. As far as I can think of, there's never been anything like it. I don't think it's gonna be for the better, I mean this is the same company responsible for this

[-] MrFlamey@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

GFWL was one of the worst attempts to compete with Steam I've ever seen, and also one of the worst software experiences I've ever had. I never got more than an hour into GTA4 because of it and how intolerant of bullshit software I am. Valve should have put their feet down back then and said "no secondary launcher dependencies".

Game pass is OK in terms of value if you play lots of games, but the software it uses is not great, despite being leagues better than GFWL. Windows also sucks, but I'm stuck with it due to work :/

[-] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Seems like a foregone conclusion now that this will go through. Unless I’m mistaken, the only speed bump left is the UK CMA appeal in two weeks.

[-] Boogiepop@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

The worst bit is, it seems like the CMA will negotiate with them. This might be well and truly over.

[-] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

I’ll be shocked if it doesn’t go through. I stand to benefit from the acquisition as a GP subscriber but I’m definitely worried about corporate consolidation. At least Bobby Kotick will go away

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this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2023

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