Current Events > BREAKING Microsoft beat the FTC in court in right to buy Activision case

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://twitter.com/ign/status/1678784674032746496?s=46&t=2bbwbHDOcUAYvyIczfBUVg

damn thats fucked up, gaming about to get worse.

Sony ponies in shambles while Nintendo fans indifferent

Okay, that's one thing, but it's not like this deal is dlne and final by now.

But what about all these offers like "CoD is going to be released on Playstation too for 10 years minimum" that were declined by Sony?

so does this mean no ps6? :(

Karovorak posted...

Okay, that's one thing, but it's not like this deal is dlne and final by now.

But what about all these offers like "CoD is going to be released on Playstation too for 10 years minimum" that were declined by Sony?

https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/31/23433114/microsoft -call-of-duty-playstation-phil-spencer-comments

Dope

Cant wait for all the goodie activision games on gamepass

Yazarogi posted...

damn thats fucked up, gaming about to get worse.

Nothing is going to change as Activision-Blizzard offers nothing of value

Microsoft is hardly trustworthy but I still have a small glimmer of hope they might be able to run Activision-Blizzard's projects better than scummy Bobby Kottick has.

Nice, gaming is saved.

this is bad news for gamers, and also consumers generally

Yazarogi posted...

damn thats fucked up, gaming about to get worse.

It's not like Activision Blizzard was a good company in the first place, at the worst this probably won't change the status quo

MarthGoomba posted...

Nothing is going to change as Activision-Blizzard offers nothing of value

Sekiro was published under Activision. So go fight the Soulsborne people on that.

I would have been worried if Activision was bought by anti-consumer Sony instead.

How many more microtransactions can they fit into the next CoD for Microsoft to start recouping the money used for the purchase? Maybe a battle pass in a battle pass?

Oh joy is it finally over?

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

I'm sure that even if Kotick does get kicked out of ActiBlizz, he'll still end up leaving with a golden parachute, and will be ready and willing to go find another company to worm his way into.

Nice

Ready for those Gamepass additions

Also the melt downs on the PS5 board are going to be hilarious

Bwahahahaha get fucked Sony

Yay! No more having to reminisce over the 360 days for Xbox to feel relevant.

not surprising. FTC was arguing the deal would hurt Sony, not the consumers, the entire time and looked like clowns.

Awesome. Soon I'll be able to play diablo and WoW Classisc again. Can't wait.

Sony about to finalize whatever acquisitions they put on hold so they could argue in US courts that acquisitions are bad.

American has pro-business courts.

I knew they were going to win. UK is the last defense, conservatives in UK are going to dismantle.

Pitfall is X-Box exclusive now?

So much for Atari compilations.

Dark_Arbron posted...

Microsoft is hardly trustworthy but I still have a small glimmer of hope they might be able to run Activision-Blizzard's projects better than scummy Bobby Kottick has.

History has proven this literally never happens.

Damn, $69B.

Disney bought all of LucasFilms for $4B.

Crazy how big Activision series are.

Dark_Arbron posted...

Microsoft is hardly trustworthy but I still have a small glimmer of hope they might be able to run Activision-Blizzard's projects better than scummy Bobby Kottick has.

I'm worried about what happens after Phil leaves.
What happens if they get another Mattrick in there with control over all that IP?

superbot400 posted...

American has pro-business courts.

It certainly didn't help their case that the FTC's arguments (that I saw anyway) were predicated on this deal being bad for Sony. They seemingly couldn't articulate why this deal was bad for consumers.

Cool now I'll never have to buy an Activision game ever again if they come to gamepass

Remember when the judge had to literally remind the FTC they are supposed to argue for the consumers not Sony.

This was clearly just some busy body trying to make a name for themselves in the Biden Administration by saying any tech buy is bad when not looking at the fact that Microsoft is a clear distant third and has been for over a decade. This purchase will bring more competition between Sony and Microsoft where Sony cant pull as much anti-consumer stuff as they have been doing recently.

Why the hell would anyone want to buy Craptivision?

They haven't made any decent games since the 1980's!

Oh good grief that means that the Xbox will now be flooded with Crap Of Duty.

PiOverlord posted...

Damn, $69B.

Disney bought all of LucasFilms for $4B.

Crazy how big Activision series are.

I still think that might be overvalued to be honest.

superbot400 posted...

I still think that might be overvalued to be honest.

Tbf, almost every big acquisition like this will be overvalued to some degree.

CruelBuffalo posted...

Remember when the judge had to literally remind the FTC they are supposed to argue for the consumers not Sony.

This was clearly just some busy body trying to make a name for themselves in the Biden Administration by saying any tech buy is bad when not looking at the fact that Microsoft is a clear distant third and has been for over a decade. This purchase will bring more competition between Sony and Microsoft where Sony cant pull as much anti-consumer stuff as they have been doing recently.

The problem is this was framed too much as console war bullshit

Microsoft is one of the worlds biggest companies, just bought one of the biggest gaming companies in Zenimax, and is now trying to buy another one of the biggest gaming companies in A-B

consolidation like that is always bad for the consumer, even if in the short term they try to obfuscate that by putting a bunch of stuff on gamepass or whatever

PiOverlord posted...

Damn, $69B.

Disney bought all of LucasFilms for $4B.

Crazy how big Activision series are.

Candy crush and CoD mobile each make like a billion a year and WoW brings in whatever it does. Activision's worth is mostly tied to f2p mobile games which is why they're so deceptively large for the size of their actual games catalog.

itcheyness posted...

It certainly didn't help their case that the FTC's arguments (that I saw anyway) were predicated on this deal being bad for Sony. They seemingly couldn't articulate why this deal was bad for consumers.

Makes you wonder why they couldn't articulate harm to consumers

Xbox. Won.

CruelBuffalo posted...

Remember when the judge had to literally remind the FTC they are supposed to argue for the consumers not Sony.

This was clearly just some busy body trying to make a name for themselves in the Biden Administration by saying any tech buy is bad when not looking at the fact that Microsoft is a clear distant third and has been for over a decade. This purchase will bring more competition between Sony and Microsoft where Sony cant pull as much anti-consumer stuff as they have been doing recently.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/0/3/AAde2jAAEnVn.jpg

My take: right decision for the wrong reasons. MS has every incentive to make COD and any title exclusive. The whole idea of "we wouldn't split up gaming communities" is silly. Yes they would. That split happens every console generation. The deal isn't anticompetitive because Sony or a third-party will make games to fill the gap left by COD.

I am conflicted about this. On one hand I hate seeing all of media being bought up by a few companies.

On the other hand I am kinda excited for some of Activision's IPs to be in the hands of a much less shitty company. Guitar Hero would be nice to see. Also maybe somehow we can see lesser known stuff like Vigilante 8 or Metal Arms return

TheGoldenEel posted...

The problem is this was framed too much as console war bullshit

Microsoft is one of the worlds biggest companies, just bought one of the biggest gaming companies in Zenimax, and is now trying to buy another one of the biggest gaming companies in A-B

consolidation like that is always bad for the consumer, even if in the short term they try to obfuscate that by putting a bunch of stuff on gamepass or whatever

If it's so bad for the consumer, why didn't the FTC win?

Mythtaker posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/0/3/AAde2jAAEnVn.jpg

This is actually wrong. Sony is a direct customer of Activision. Game purchasers are also consumers, but the FTC was correct to express Sony's concerns in a vertical merger.

superbot400 posted...

I still think that might be overvalued to be honest.

PiOverlord posted...

Tbf, almost every big acquisition like this will be overvalued to some degree.

Definitely. We'll probably see something similar if someone ever buys Twitter.

voldothegr8 posted...

If it's so bad for the consumer, why didn't the FTC win?

Judges don't understand antitrust law.