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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 120 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 45 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 19 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 14 points 1 year ago

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

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[-] SatouKazuma@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

True.

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[-] mojo@lemm.ee 12 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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[-] someguy3@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

I think they're still there, just haven't been trotted out in recent history. And mergers keep getting approved.

[-] SatouKazuma@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago

The last merger that got blocked was almost 50 years ago, I believe. So yeah...it's probably dead.

[-] burndown@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago

Which was that? Also, DraftKings and FanDuel got rejected about 10 years ago

[-] SatouKazuma@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

I want to say it was in the telecoms industry. But I completely forgot about that merger you mentioned. Thanks for reminding me.

[-] Zana@startrek.website 3 points 1 year ago

Didn't they just block the Nvidia ARM merger a few years back?

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[-] imaBEES@kbin.social 11 points 1 year ago

It's my understanding that Microsoft can now close the deal and acquire ABK before the FTC trial would even take place (as soon as July 18th, though unlikely given the new UK CMA negotiations). What happens to the suit if the merger is already complete?

[-] Defaced@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago

Probably a fine that's simply justified as "operating costs". It's actually kinda bullshit, they shouldn't be allowed to buy up all the NA competition. Next is probably EA. Thankfully Sony saw this coming and started investing in new studios and IP.

[-] SatouKazuma@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

How does one bring Teddy Roosevelt back from the grave? I'm uh...asking for a friend? Yeah. Let's go with that.

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[-] imaBEES@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

I'd be pretty surprised if MS is allowed to purchase another huge publisher. Zenimax was pretty small, but ABK is huge. But who knows at this point..

[-] SatouKazuma@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

MSFT could purchase Congress itself and get away with it thanks to Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission

[-] thoro@lemmy.ml 26 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.

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[-] Eggyhead@kbin.social 21 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 7 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.

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[-] Bobert@sh.itjust.works 20 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 13 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 18 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 13 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 14 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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[-] hypelightfly@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

The CMA appeal is covered in the article. Both parties have requested to delay the appeal so they can negotiate modifying the merger to address CMA concerns about cloud gaming. It's going through.

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this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2023

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