I was talking about their Good Will with the US government. They spent a long time getting close with many government officials and playing nice with them. Challenging them in court will reverse all of that.
Well yes that's why I said COD is just an excuse.
That's what a 10 year written contract to the ftc can solve 👌
They didn't just mention Starfield they mentioned all of the studios Microsoft acquired including studios with unannounced games like Compulsion Games. So unless you are suggesting they make everything multiplatform which would never happen they'd still be scrutinized.
Let's not forget Sony were actively trying to make Starfield an exclusive to them.
Multiple Microsoft representatives didn't go on the record on multiple occasions explicitly promising that Starfield would be multiplatform, though. If they had promised that and then changed their mind and made it an exclusive, sure, that would hurt their credibility here. But they very deliberately did not say that.
If tossing tons of money on timed deals to the point of monopoly was a possible reality then MS would've done it a long time ago against Sony.
I mean....there are/were Xbox timed exclusives since the new consoles launched. Hell, I'm excepting Scorn and Somerville to get a PS5 announcement sometime in 2023.
Microsoft just closed on a $20 billion acquisition. This is absolutely not an attempt to prevent big tech, or Microsoft in this case, from buying someone at all. Again, this is ignoring the specific circumstances related to a leading video game company buying the largest video game publisher (because a MS/Koei purchase would sail through).
But according to the CMA, market participants provided them with correspondence from Microsoft to those parties in which they did hurt their credibility with statements regarding Bethesda titles' availability on other platforms.
Like someone said, IMO it's not about buying someone....it's about buying anyone/everyone.
There was never any platforms announced for Starfield so there was no logos
It's only problematic if it substantially lessons competition which the numbers don't seem to indicate as being the case. Maybe in the future post ABK another large purchase would and therefore be blocked
Apple vs epic gave us stuff we didn't even think we would be getting so I would imagine this gives us much more considering Sony's stance is the sale would hurt their customers choice (what choice btw? They don't even give us choice like day one releases on their service or PC)
I'm aware of what Starfield is. Can you show the early promotional material
The problem is that even COD argument cannot be used to block the deal - there is no a single IP in existence by putting which on Game Pass or removing from the platform can some lessen competition. To block the deal FTC has to write a lawsuit to the courts and courts should agree with FTC's argument - looking at their success with Meta/Facebook, I don't see it happening with ABK.
No, challenging them would not change anything. It is a normal litigation process that won't affect any goodwill. They were avoiding scrutiny but there a limit to which Microsoft would allow themselves to be pushed by the regulators. What is gonna happen is that probably Lisa Khan won't be reelected in 2 years considering new FTC's relatively unsucessful attempts to do anything. And probably businesses will question FTC as there have been concerns from a lot of actors that the new FTC does not operate under the proper laws.
"So, these things are called consoles" 🤣
They literally did that because with Fox Sports Disney would have a monopoly on sports channels. Like - real monopoly. Not "FPS monopoly" or "good customer value monopoly".
We literally had nothing from Starfield aside the logo with no platforms for years. Bethesda did not show anything Starfield related. And the only case when Playstation was somehow mentioned in relation to Starfield is when Sony was trying to moneyhat the game 🤣
Results in opposite so far
If a relatively easy to pass deal like this can't get through FTC, with regulators trumping up "excuses" (your words) to try and rationalize that, what's the real value of Microsoft's good will position then? The accord has to work both ways for it to be beneficial, if FTC takes the gloves off why shouldn't MS? Head of DOJ used to work for them anyway so it's unlikely they'll see much coming from that direction no matter how matters progress with FTC.
Yeah Activision can pull out of the deal. I think they would then have to pay several billion dollars to MS then.
Activision doesn't want out. Both ownership and labor there want this deal maybe worse than MS, both sides see it as their way out current managerial complexities and scandals.
