Video Gamers Sue Microsoft In US Court To Stop Activision Takeover - Slashdot
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Video Gamers Sue Microsoft In US Court To Stop Activision Takeover
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The proposed acquisition would give Microsoft "far-outsized market power in the video game industry," the complaint alleged, "with the ability to foreclose rivals, limit output, reduce consumer choice, raise prices, and further inhibit competition." A Microsoft representative on Tuesday defended the deal, saying in a statement that it "will expand competition and create more opportunities for gamers and game developers." After the FTC sued, Microsoft President Brad Smith said, "We have complete confidence in our case and welcome the opportunity to present our case in court."
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I don't think it could possibly get any worse than packaged-goods Activision-Blizzard under Bobby Kotick. He managed to kill even the venerable Blizzard. Think what you want about Microsoft, but they couldn't possibly do a worse job.-
No acquisition in history ever benefited the customer. It's always about the company greed and bottom line, never about the customer.
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But I heard they get all their money from customers, so the bottom line is all about the customer.
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You heard wrong. They get all their money from share holders and the stock market trading algorithms
Proof: See how Activision screwed over all the gamers with Diablo Immortal, Warcraft 3 remake, Diablo 3, WoW Retail, Hearthstone, etc and they are still a money making company
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While I don't like this deal I have to agree with this point, Activision as a parent corporation is not good and has in most gamers opinions been a negative for Blizzard whose reputation was fairly sterling before being acquired.
It's fair to criticize MS for becoming way too big in the space and for their other... indiscretions in other product lines but as far as their XBox Game Studios is concerned they appear to be pretty developer friendly.
If anything I personally would prefer of MS took Blizz by itself and left Activision and Kotick to the wind.
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It can't be real gamers who are pushing this lawsuit. Anybody who games knows anything released by Activision-Blizzard over the last few years has been utter garbage, so another company intervening in this train wreak is a blessing.
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by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Friday December 23, 2022 @08:53AM (#63152734)
Not a single video gamer is involved here. Microsoft was sued by lawyers hoping to make a buck, nothing more. An epically pointless waste of time of the legal system, a system which is already seeing an actually relevant lawsuit in progress by the FTC.
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Has the FTC ever actually denied a merger?
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The FTC doesn't have the power to deny mergers. The only thing they can do is take legal action to get a court to deny the merger. That is what they are doing here (and have done in plenty of other cases).
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_Almost_ never. But close to 100%.
My last 2 companies got bought. Our lawyers basically said, "Fill out this paperwork, don't lie about anything, pay the fees and it'll be ok". They had zero concern our deals would even be looked at. Rubber stamp.
Only big potentially political issue mergers are at risk and most of those go through anyway.
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that made it so that they could only deny a merger if it could be shown the actively increase consumer prices. Competition could not be considered.
Biden just changed their policy, so that for the first time in 20+ years competition is now a factor. This means Microsoft can't just pinky swear to keep prices down and get approval.
That said, we've been voting with our guts since the 90s, and the courts and regulators are pretty well packed and captured. So Biden's change might not amount to much. If we -
Not the point I was making. But yes the FTC is taking action against this merger.
The point was that the FTC is using the same courts that these ambulance chasers are, so this is literally a waste of time. Either the FTC wins and the merger is denied, or the FTC loses and the court decides there's nothing wrong. A few fuckwits with a separate lawsuit is irrelevant.It's honestly hard to see how this won't simply get thrown out on standing either. When has a common person ever had any standing to intervene in
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the only possible outcome is for Microsoft to withdraw from the merger or win this lawsuit. If they withdraw the plantiffs lose standing and the lawsuit gets dismissed. And if Microsoft wins then naturally the suit is dismissed.
Furthermore it's a private lawsuit, not class action. So you can't use that trick where Microsoft settles the class action suit and gets immunity from further lawsuits.
This very likely is actual gamers that don't want this merger to go through. And for damned good reason I'd
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I've gamed my whole life, Microsoft will likely destroy activision, yes yes blah blah but so what?
The way the game industry works is tiny development studios make the games and cut deals with giant publishers like activision to get them in front of gamers. After that the in house staff grinds out the sequels.
Who cares if the publisher is activision or Microsoft or my dirty left sock the dog chewed on? They have very little to do with the real games getting made.
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You don't get it....
People are hoping that if there is diversity in the gaming industry that there will be more innovation.
There hasn't been any real innovation since about 2005. Just regurgitation of dead end game types.
This is somewhat caused by the gaming industry and gaming distribution turning into a monolithic industry.
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When Sony is required to make every game they make available on PC and Xbox on launch day, then these people might have a complaint. As it stands now, you only have crybabies who want the games they want on Playstation, but then defend the console exclusives that Sony has. Note that Sony has purchased developers, both large and small over the years, so unless they want to force the publishers to make every game available on every platform, their case has no merit.
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That's not the right argument - every console has exclusive titles. The question is would Microsoft take something that is not presently exclusive, and make it exclusive or add restrictions that otherwise wouldn't exist? The answer "almost assuredly" - and this is what makes it anticompetitive.
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Looking at the lawsuit, I think it is a cash grab than an actual lawsuit. Even if it originated from actual video game players, they lack any standing to sue Microsoft for this proposed merger. That being said, "But Sony . .." is not a great reason why the lawsuit should be dismissed.
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You don't even have that since they are currently getting the games on the Playstation and Microsoft has stated on the record they will continue to be available on the Playstation.
Literally no gamers is crying about this. It's a bunch of lawyers who are throwing a frivolous lawsuit in the mix and needed to attach the names of a couple of "gamers" into their lawsuit.
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Somebody really wants to keep their pay-for content on Diablo Immortal relevant enough to sue in order to keep it.
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There are literally hundreds of studios and thousands of indie developers. We should probably sue the publishers and marketplaces that are the gatekeepers.
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