FTC files lawsuit against Microsoft to stop the Activision acquisition

1280px-XBOX_logo_2012.svg.png

After months of uncertainty, the United States Federal Trade Commission has officially filed a lawsuit to stop Microsoft from its $68.7 billion dollar purchase of Activision Blizzard. The attempt to block the acquisition is because the FTC believes that it would allow Microsoft to suppress competitors, especially due to the fact that Microsoft already acquired ZeniMax and made their IPs exclusive to Microsoft platforms despite stating to antitrust authorities that they would not do that.

The Federal Trade Commission is seeking to block technology giant Microsoft Corp. from acquiring leading video game developer Activision Blizzard, Inc. and its blockbuster gaming franchises such as Call of Duty, alleging that the $69 billion deal, Microsoft’s largest ever and the largest ever in the video gaming industry, would enable Microsoft to suppress competitors to its Xbox gaming consoles and its rapidly growing subscription content and cloud-gaming business.

Microsoft says that it is prepared to take things to court and prove that its purchase of Activision will help competition rather than hurt it. They also made offers to Valve, Nintendo, and Sony that would allow for Activision's Call of Duty franchise to be available on competing platforms for up to 10 years.

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chrisrlink

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the ftc is suppose to protect the consumer from companies not to be a lapdog to foriegn ones do they realize if they block activisions merger activision is screwed? as in no longer exist plus the sierra IP's will go poof (or will the rights for the quest games go back to their respected creators? (doubt it but would be nice)
 

nyder

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Ok then, wikipedia :).

The reason it's not okay is you were claiming it was a state problem, when states have nothing to do with it. It's almost like you don't understand the subject and are just repeating some political (Republican) talking points instead of actually using your brain to understand what the subject is about.

What the FTC is doing here is good. Most of you might be too young to remember, but MS under Bill Gates used to buy up companies to bury them, would set rules for other companies to make it so they only used MS software, instead of any others. Ended up killing the OS market, and turned the PC market to a MS monopoly. They killed all other OS that ran on the PC. (Minus Apple because Apple actually made the hardware their software ran on, where MS had to do deal with manufacture, with the stipulation that they could not sell computers without a MS OS on it.

So while the Xbox made a bunch of MS fanboys over the last couple decades, MS has always been a very anti competitive company.
 

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The reason it's not okay is you were claiming it was a state problem, when states have nothing to do with it. It's almost like you don't understand the subject and are just repeating some political (Republican) talking points instead of actually using your brain to understand what the subject is about.

What the FTC is doing here is good. Most of you might be too young to remember, but MS under Bill Gates used to buy up companies to bury them, would set rules for other companies to make it so they only used MS software, instead of any others. Ended up killing the OS market, and turned the PC market to a MS monopoly. They killed all other OS that ran on the PC. (Minus Apple because Apple actually made the hardware their software ran on, where MS had to do deal with manufacture, with the stipulation that they could not sell computers without a MS OS on it.

So while the Xbox made a bunch of MS fanboys over the last couple decades, MS has always been a very anti competitive company.
yeah, Microsoft was almost broken up into two separate companies because of the antitrust lawsuits. Netscape Navigator essentially ceased to exist because of the damage that their antitrust shit did. Microsoft basically said "if you ship Netscape instead of IE, we're not going to sell you, the OEM Microsoft licensing", and already having a massive stranglehold on the PC industry, OEMs had no other choice but to submit or die like all of the other microcomputers without Windows were doing at the time.

I haven't been a big fan of this merger ever since it was announced. now I don't know any specific numbers, but if this merger happens, they will basically control a majority of the gaming studios. I don't think people understand how big ABK really is. While I don't think this is the same M$ as it was back in the day, but it still smells like antitrust violations to me

EDIT: I'm also largely concerned about them doing console manufacturing as well. While, I don't think that's a big contention for me as I don't think Microsoft would want to throw away money by making everything ABK exclusive, I could definitely see them holding onto certain releases to make their platforms look more enticing. so we may get some remakes here and there, but the big AAA titles may be exclusive to Xbox/Windows
 
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gnmmarechal

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I remember people crying that Microsoft would ruin Minecraft :')
I mean, they did manage to fill Bedrock Edition with microtransations everywhere in the menu, mildly irritating
 
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ZeroFX

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The reason it's not okay is you were claiming it was a state problem, when states have nothing to do with it. It's almost like you don't understand the subject and are just repeating some political (Republican) talking points instead of actually using your brain to understand what the subject is about.

What the FTC is doing here is good. Most of you might be too young to remember, but MS under Bill Gates used to buy up companies to bury them, would set rules for other companies to make it so they only used MS software, instead of any others. Ended up killing the OS market, and turned the PC market to a MS monopoly. They killed all other OS that ran on the PC. (Minus Apple because Apple actually made the hardware their software ran on, where MS had to do deal with manufacture, with the stipulation that they could not sell computers without a MS OS on it.

So while the Xbox made a bunch of MS fanboys over the last couple decades, MS has always been a very anti competitive company.
I was referring to "the state" (as a nation state) like any normal person outside US. Go make better use of your Wikipedia or Wiktionary, go use your brain.
 
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FAST6191

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Re anticompetitiveness. From where I sit

MS buys them, buries them a la Rare (give or take the nostalgia pack in 15 years). Nothing of value is lost except to MS' pocket book (couldn't happen to a nicer bunch).
MS buys them, pours money into them and makes them a worthwhile company. Chances are not good but not a bad outcome either.
MS gets blocked, Activision continues to flounder in mediocrity (the weaksauce lawsuit being what some are getting panties in a bunch over possibly being a catalyst, stranger things have happened) until it becomes a company only those around to see the netscape examples remember but were major players at the time (Square Enix selling Eidos' stinky corpse the other month being an example). Good times.

AB, never mind the AB and MS conglomerate, might hold some kind of sales record, play time or whatever metric but it is not even a fraction as concerning as say Unreal being bought, or Steam throwing its weight around vis a vis censorship. Franchises come and go, wax and wane (this largely being on the wane side). If somehow the evil Sony box is more morally acceptable than the evil MS box you wander on by ignoring it like you might have ignored Halo, Forza or whatever for all these years.

Though I would still maintain the best future is exclusives go the way of the dodo and game companies adopt the DVD model where everybody makes a player with whatever features people want and a baseline level and things go from there. This seems no more deleterious to that glorious future than anything else.
 

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I was referring to "the state" (as a nation state) like any normal person outside US. Go make better use of your Wikipedia or Wiktionary, go use your brain.

MS is an American company, so when you say "state", every reasonable person is going to assume you mean an American State.

Maybe you should educate yourself in a school instead of the "wiki" you keep touting.
 

pedro702

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Though I would still maintain the best future is exclusives go the way of the dodo and game companies adopt the DVD model where everybody makes a player with whatever features people want and a baseline level and things go from there. This seems no more deleterious to that glorious future than anything else.
this doesnt work for gaming at all... a dvd player from 20 years ago still plays just fine any dvd made today, same for bluray players, because dvds/movies dont require more memory or processing power to be playable.

what makes a dvd/bluray player appealling is if you have one you can play every dvd/bluray ever made until they arent dvds or blurays anymore,doesnt matter if you buy a dvd in 2000 or 2050, if its a dvd it will play at the exact same resolution and framerate, for games this wont work because a game cosnole from 20 years ago cant run a singlet game nowadays.

If someone came up to me and said every 6-7 years i would need to buy a new dvd player the entire idea or dvd/bluray players wouldnt be so enticing anymore.

You cant expect a console to play every game for the next 30 years... you would either have games do no advance at all in technology or it would be a massive mess for people to know if the newer dvd would even be playable on your dvd player that has afew years.

Basically what you want already existed and was a complete failure it was called steam machines where they tryed giving a specs bench so devs could develop for those, and you know what? complete failure devs didnt care and continued making games that needed more and more power and those machines got outdated in couple years at best...
 

ChaosEternal

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The reason it's not okay is you were claiming it was a state problem, when states have nothing to do with it. It's almost like you don't understand the subject and are just repeating some political (Republican) talking points instead of actually using your brain to understand what the subject is about.

What the FTC is doing here is good. Most of you might be too young to remember, but MS under Bill Gates used to buy up companies to bury them, would set rules for other companies to make it so they only used MS software, instead of any others. Ended up killing the OS market, and turned the PC market to a MS monopoly. They killed all other OS that ran on the PC. (Minus Apple because Apple actually made the hardware their software ran on, where MS had to do deal with manufacture, with the stipulation that they could not sell computers without a MS OS on it.

So while the Xbox made a bunch of MS fanboys over the last couple decades, MS has always been a very anti competitive company.
I won't speak to the greater computing environment of the time, but the case itself was about whether Microsoft violated antitrust law by bundling a web browser with Windows. Although the government won, by the time the case was resolved the entire practice of selling web browsers was effectively dead and within a decade Google Chrome had taken the top spot. The way I see it, it's an example of government regulators failing to predict the direction of the market and intervening when no intervention was needed. Perhaps it had a 2nd order effect of convincing Microsoft to lessen its anti-competitive behaviors out of fear of further charges, but then why not go after Microsoft for the software lockout stuff in the first place?
 
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MFDC12

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MS is an American company, so when you say "state", every reasonable person is going to assume you mean an American State.

Maybe you should educate yourself in a school instead of the "wiki" you keep touting.
I'm American and I use the word exactly as the person you are replying to uses it - it's really not incorrect to refer to the US as a state or a nation state. I get the confusion but you need to really calm down about it lol
 
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ZeroFX

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MS is an American company, so when you say "state", every reasonable person is going to assume you mean an American State.

Maybe you should educate yourself in a school instead of the "wiki" you keep touting.
Ok, ok, amerimutt, you very educated. (Doesn't know how to use a basic word because too amuhrican.)
 
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paulttt

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As someone who doesn't live in the USA, and hates people of colour, people of a different religion, different sex, and hell just about anyone that isn't me.

I don't have a strong opinion one way or another.


Go Stadia!!
 

nyder

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I'm American and I use the word exactly as the person you are replying to uses it - it's really not incorrect to refer to the US as a state or a nation state. I get the confusion but you need to really calm down about it lol

Please. No one in the United States refers to the US as a state, or a nation state. A nation of states, yes, but not what you are suggesting. "Not incorrect" only means you are reaching for a reason to justify Zero's comment.

And I'm not grasping the "calm down" part. I am just having a peaceful conversation with Zero mostly. You can't handle that? You projecting? Little projection with your reach?
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Ok, ok, amerimutt, you very educated. (Doesn't know how to use a basic word because too amuhrican.)

Well, I guess there is no point in talking with you anymore. I gave you a chance, but I knew from the get go you were heading to the ignore list.
 

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MS can buy all the companies in the world and even then, in Japan they're no competence against Sony and Nintendo, just because their business model sucks, and japanese people know it.

I'm not japanese, but I know it too.

How could buying a single company represent a "threat" agains competitiveness for other companies, when many other developers can create products way better than theirs?

Ask the indies if you don't believe me.
 

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