The Federal Trade Commission May File Antitrust Lawsuit to Block the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard D

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The Federal Trade Commission May File Antitrust Lawsuit to Block the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard Deal | MMORPG.com

Microsoft's nearly $69 billion dollar proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard might be hitting a new snag. A federal antitrust lawsuit may be incoming, seeking to block the deal.

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slowz2secret

I don't get it, why they don't say anything with the 600 companies tencent had bought?

Vrika

slowz2secret said:

I don't get it, why they don't say anything with the 600 companies tencent had bought?

Because they are not worried about anyone getting too dominant position on game development industry. They are worried about Microsoft using Activision Blizzard to get too dominant position in gaming platforms and cloud services for games.

That's why Tencent is allowed to freely buy game companies, but Microsoft is not.

MrdGamez

slowz2secret said:

I don't get it, why they don't say anything with the 600 companies tencent had bought?

Because Tencent falls below the umbrella of the CCP, CCP can pump unlimited money into TenCent to buy everything around the world. Especially government politicians that oversee such big company takeovers like the CCP money and are willing to look the other way to pass the deal. Actually you could even say it falls under national security such takeovers by Tencent because if the CCP calls for user information from western company's that TenCent owns, Tencent must obey to the CCP even if it means breaking the western laws.

Scot

MrdGamez said:

slowz2secret said:

I don't get it, why they don't say anything with the 600 companies tencent had bought?

Because Tencent falls below the umbrella of the CCP, CCP can pump unlimited money into TenCent to buy everything around the world. Especially government politicians that oversee such big company takeovers like the CCP money and are willing to look the other way to pass the deal. Actually you could even say it falls under national security such takeovers by Tencent because if the CCP calls for user information from western company's that TenCent owns, Tencent must obey to the CCP even if it means breaking the western laws.

Perhaps a little too much conspiracy there but one thing is clear, China has ensured their own companies have less hassle expanding into new markets and firming their position in their current holdings than the West does.

JeroKane

Scot said:

MrdGamez said:

slowz2secret said:

I don't get it, why they don't say anything with the 600 companies tencent had bought?

Because Tencent falls below the umbrella of the CCP, CCP can pump unlimited money into TenCent to buy everything around the world. Especially government politicians that oversee such big company takeovers like the CCP money and are willing to look the other way to pass the deal. Actually you could even say it falls under national security such takeovers by Tencent because if the CCP calls for user information from western company's that TenCent owns, Tencent must obey to the CCP even if it means breaking the western laws.

Perhaps a little too much conspiracy there but one thing is clear, China has ensured their own companies have less hassle expanding into new markets and firming their position in their current holdings than the West does.

What is even more hilarious is, that even if Microsoft gets hold of ActiVision Blizzard, companies like EA and Ubisoft are still a way bigger player in the game market, with many more big franchises under their belt.

I mean, lets be honest here. What has ActiVision Blizzard to offer lately? Their only real big worthwhile franchise they have at the moment is Call of Duty. That's pretty much it.
Blizzard themselves aren't that much of a big deal anymore, now World of Warcraft's is long past it's prime.

vegetableoil

Scot said:

MrdGamez said:

slowz2secret said:

I don't get it, why they don't say anything with the 600 companies tencent had bought?

Because Tencent falls below the umbrella of the CCP, CCP can pump unlimited money into TenCent to buy everything around the world. Especially government politicians that oversee such big company takeovers like the CCP money and are willing to look the other way to pass the deal. Actually you could even say it falls under national security such takeovers by Tencent because if the CCP calls for user information from western company's that TenCent owns, Tencent must obey to the CCP even if it means breaking the western laws.

Perhaps a little too much conspiracy there but one thing is clear, China has ensured their own companies have less hassle expanding into new markets and firming their position in their current holdings than the West does.

btw tencent biggest owner is naspers, which is a south african company. it owns 30% of tencent where as the ceo of tencent only owns 7% of the shares. and also the south african government owns majority of naspers, basically they can control how tencent makes acquisition. and of course tencent also owns the majority of epic, which make ue 5. it's really a headache if you looks on how the corporate structure works lol.

Professor78

Guessing this is all because Microsoft will have the 0.01% more of the Gaming Market revenue than Sony if merger went ahead.

Xiaoki

JeroKane said:

Scot said:

MrdGamez said:

slowz2secret said:

I don't get it, why they don't say anything with the 600 companies tencent had bought?

Because Tencent falls below the umbrella of the CCP, CCP can pump unlimited money into TenCent to buy everything around the world. Especially government politicians that oversee such big company takeovers like the CCP money and are willing to look the other way to pass the deal. Actually you could even say it falls under national security such takeovers by Tencent because if the CCP calls for user information from western company's that TenCent owns, Tencent must obey to the CCP even if it means breaking the western laws.

Perhaps a little too much conspiracy there but one thing is clear, China has ensured their own companies have less hassle expanding into new markets and firming their position in their current holdings than the West does.

What is even more hilarious is, that even if Microsoft gets hold of ActiVision Blizzard, companies like EA and Ubisoft are still a way bigger player in the game market, with many more big franchises under their belt.

I mean, lets be honest here. What has ActiVision Blizzard to offer lately? Their only real big worthwhile franchise they have at the moment is Call of Duty. That's pretty much it.
Blizzard themselves aren't that much of a big deal anymore, now World of Warcraft's is long past it's prime.

For 2021 full year revenue Activision Blizzard made more than EA and Ubisoft combined.

Activision Blizzard is the biggest third party video games publisher in the world.

RaZKaLz

Xiaoki said:

JeroKane said:

Scot said:

MrdGamez said:

slowz2secret said:

I don't get it, why they don't say anything with the 600 companies tencent had bought?

Because Tencent falls below the umbrella of the CCP, CCP can pump unlimited money into TenCent to buy everything around the world. Especially government politicians that oversee such big company takeovers like the CCP money and are willing to look the other way to pass the deal. Actually you could even say it falls under national security such takeovers by Tencent because if the CCP calls for user information from western company's that TenCent owns, Tencent must obey to the CCP even if it means breaking the western laws.

Perhaps a little too much conspiracy there but one thing is clear, China has ensured their own companies have less hassle expanding into new markets and firming their position in their current holdings than the West does.

What is even more hilarious is, that even if Microsoft gets hold of ActiVision Blizzard, companies like EA and Ubisoft are still a way bigger player in the game market, with many more big franchises under their belt.



I mean, lets be honest here. What has ActiVision Blizzard to offer lately? Their only real big worthwhile franchise they have at the moment is Call of Duty. That's pretty much it.

Blizzard themselves aren't that much of a big deal anymore, now World of Warcraft's is long past it's prime.

For 2021 full year revenue Activision Blizzard made more than EA and Ubisoft combined.

Activision Blizzard is the biggest third party video games publisher in the world.

You need to understand that they didn't sell games. More than 60% of their revenue comes from micro-transaction and not the games itself lol.

And someone said that ea and Ubi are bigger player but IMO the 3 of them released shitty games for years. They still sells because people are dumb AF, but they are still shit.

Antarious

To be honest if the deal is blocked it's probably best for Microsoft. The way things are run under the Activision/Blizzard banner... makes one wonder how it could be worth what Microsoft is offering.

On the subject of blocking the deal... I don't see it doing anything to benefit consumers one way or the other. Then again I guess the articlee never mentioned us... it only mentioned othber companies ability to soak money out of us being hindered. Monopolies were supposedly bad for consumers and now it's only about other companies in the market.

I guess that's a bit off the rails. I don't honestly care one way or the other. It will be interesting to see what happens after the deal or no dea... one way or the other.

Veexer_Nui

I mean, Activision Blizzard re-hired Bobby Kotick to CEO after he knew about the workpalce abuse for years and said nothing.

That alone is reason for an antitrust lawsuit.

emperorhades1

Knew this was coming. You can't own the operating system, all the games and the consoles in America....... Unless you are a big corporation who owns the government.

I finally understand the Microsoft Logo,

Red = Consoles = Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois
Green = Software = Pennsylvania, Pacific, North Carolina
Blue = Operating System = Boardwalk and Park Place
Orange = Games = St. James, New York, Tennessee

The White Background = World Domination
Monopoly

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Angrakhan

The loser in this will be ActiBlizz, that and any fans of their games. A Microsoft aquisition would do nothing but help Blizzard dig themselves out of the hole of their own making. Without it Blizzard will return to status quo and continue their downward progress.

Xiaoki

Veexer_Nui said: no

I mean, Activision Blizzard re-hired Bobby Kotick to CEO after he knew about the workpalce abuse for years and said nothing.

That alone is reason for an antitrust lawsuit.

Re-hired Bobby Kotick?

Bobby Kotick never left his position as CEO.

After the acquisition was announced Bobby Kotick left his seat on the board of directors at Coca-cola and that's it.

FrodoFragins

I really don't understand the rationale for this unless they are worried about things 10 years down the line.

In terms of consoles MS is far in the back of the pack.



Now obviously MS has an advantage in cloud gaming and game pass, but it's not like Sony and Nintendo are incapable of making offerings.  And there is NO way that Call of Duty possibly going exclusive at some point is justification to kill the deal.  Maybe Sony should make concessions to MS if they want CoD to not go exclusive.

I guess I'll have to search for a nice, concise explanation on the actual justification.  Because I just don't see it.

Vrika

FrodoFragins said:

In terms of consoles MS is far in the back of the pack.

Wrong. Microsoft's sales data on that Wikipedia -article hasn't been updated for nearly a year.

Newest numbers are 26 million for PS5 and 18.2 million for XBox Series X/S. So Sony is ahead in sales, but not by that much.

Xiaoki

FrodoFragins said:

I really don't understand the rationale for this unless they are worried about things 10 years down the line.

Maybe the FTC is looking towards the bigger picture and not just the acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Microsoft just bought Zenimax almost 2 years ago, which is a billion dollar publisher. Now its Activision Blizzard, which is a bigger billion dollar publisher. Ubisoft has said they want to be bought out so they're probably next.

And Phil Spencer has said that they are looking into Japanese acquisitions.

giantessfan

Honestly I hope they don't get it for one simple reason and that is because Activision/Blizzard investors and Bobby shouldn't get an out and an easy payday. On top of that I think Xbox could turn around and invest in smaller or medium sized companies like they did with Obsidian and Inexile.

Buy companies no one blinks an eye at or cares about but with a AAA budget can do some wonderous and amazing things (potentially of course). Even though Xbox didn't create Obsidian and Inexile because of there size I would bet in 10 years people will just refer to them as a true Xbox first party studio even if that's wrong.

Thats the studios they should get behind. My money has always been on the fact that Obsidian and Inexile are going to become the Insomniac of the Xbox studios. People are sleeping on them. 

Just to name a few companies:

11 bit studios

Frogwares

Larian Studios

Spiderweb Software (This one is out there but they make some great RPGS if the small team behind these games are up for a bigger budget and a bigger team. Give it to him. They use the world of Avernum in a Skyrim like sytle or even do a Wasteland 3 style.


Supergiant Games

Red Hook Studios

They could buy all these studious and still have enough left over, if the deal falls through, to greenlight various games from them

FrodoFragins

Vrika said:

FrodoFragins said:

In terms of consoles MS is far in the back of the pack.

Wrong. Microsoft's sales data on that Wikipedia -article hasn't been updated for nearly a year.

Newest numbers are 26 million for PS5 and 18.2 million for XBox Series X/S. So Sony is ahead in sales, but not by that much.

Well if I see legit data for both consoles I'll reconsider.  But even if they were equal that's not a good enough reason to kill this deal.  I'd rather see Android/Apple punished for collusion to control the app market than see this deal killed.

Vrika

FrodoFragins said:

I guess I'll have to search for a nice, concise explanation on the actual justification.  Because I just don't see it.

Nice, concise explanation: Microsoft is aiming to direct Activision Blizzard's customers to use their game console, operating system, store, gamepass subscription and cloud gaming services.

Competition is supposed to be about who makes their console/OS/store/gamepass/cloud services better, not about buying up major game devs so that you can make those devs drop support to your competitors.

EDIT: For example buying Call of Duty so that they can make it XBox exclusive would not make XBox better. It would make Playstation worse.

OG_Solareus

FTC has bigger problems like direct line of head of FTC beau access for FTX. Like first name basis direct line to line with Lina Khan. what a name...

If I was Blizzard and Microsoft, that is the investigation I would be doing right now to create a character analysis of what FTC involement with FTX who was dumping millions into campaigns and then vanish after 2022 elections along with billions of dollars. Why does the FTC even exist ? would be the real question at such a trial.

The other option for Miocrosft and activision, move all business to a non governed country and do the deal there, worked for FTX...

FrodoFragins

Vrika said:

FrodoFragins said:

I guess I'll have to search for a nice, concise explanation on the actual justification.  Because I just don't see it.

Nice, concise explanation: Microsoft is aiming to direct Activision Blizzard's customers to use their game console, operating system, store, gamepass subscription and cloud gaming services.

Competition is supposed to be about who makes their console/OS/store/gamepass/cloud services better, not about buying up major game devs so that you can make those devs drop support to your competitors.

EDIT: For example buying Call of Duty so that they can make it XBox exclusive would not make XBox better. It would make Playstation worse.

Let's agree to disagree.  I would only step in if after this they went after ubisoft.

Vrika

OG_Solareus said:

FTC has bigger problems like direct line of head of FTC beau access for FTX. Like first name basis direct line to line with Lina Khan. what a name...

If I was Blizzard and Microsoft, that is the investigation I would be doing right now to create a character analysis of what FTC involement with FTX who was dumping millions into campaigns and then vanish after 2022 elections along with billions of dollars. Why does the FTC even exist ? would be the real question at such a trial.

The other option for Miocrosft and activision, move all business to a non governed country and do the deal there, worked for FTX...

That would be exceedingly stupid on Microsoft's part. If they went that route they'd just end up pointing out the fact that laws didn't give FTC the power to check on how FTX was handling their customers money. Microsoft would end up arguing that the only solution to FTX crash is to increase government oversight. That would be counter-productive to getting this sale approved.

OG_Solareus

Vrika said:

OG_Solareus said:

FTC has bigger problems like direct line of head of FTC beau access for FTX. Like first name basis direct line to line with Lina Khan. what a name...

If I was Blizzard and Microsoft, that is the investigation I would be doing right now to create a character analysis of what FTC involement with FTX who was dumping millions into campaigns and then vanish after 2022 elections along with billions of dollars. Why does the FTC even exist ? would be the real question at such a trial.

The other option for Miocrosft and activision, move all business to a non governed country and do the deal there, worked for FTX...

That would be exceedingly stupid on Microsoft's part. If they went that route they'd just end up pointing out the fact that laws didn't give FTC the power to check on how FTX was handling their customers money. Microsoft would end up arguing that the only solution to FTX crash is to increase government oversight. That would be counter-productive to getting this sale approved.

 Do you work for FTX ?