Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard
https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/11/23779039/microsoft-activision-blizzard-ftc-trial-win
From the article, quoting Judge Corley:
… the Court finds the FTC has not shown a likelihood it will prevail on its claim this particular vertical merger in this specific industry may substantially lessen competition. To the contrary, the record evidence points to more consumer access to Call of Duty and other Activision content. The motion for a preliminary injunction is therefore DENIED.
Seriously though? They bought Bethesda and look what they’re doing there. Now they get to add another massive developer as if they weren’t already ridiculously huge? This monopoly stuff has to end. I don’t just mean gaming either. Like 5 companies control our entire food supply. There can only be one internet provider in any area. It’s insane.
This is the inevitable conclusion to free-market based economies. The market will pick winners, and those winners will then have a capital advantage over all new entrants, allowing them to outcompete anyone they want, and to use their size to control the market at large. It’s literally built into the system. The attempts at reform we try are rolled back eventually, and we end up in the same place again. Ma Bell broke up, and for a while we had competition across the industry and innovation. Eventually, market leaders were picked, and we end up where we are now, with few options, and little difference between the ones we have.
Oligopoly, not monopoly. Monopoly implies there’s just 1 company. In gaming there is far from one company.
What did Microsoft do with Bethesda?
Bought them and made their games Microsoft exclusives.
Let’s be honest. Bethesda games have always been PC exclusives. All other platforms got an unfinished beta and PC got the real game.
MS isn’t even top 2 in a hardware market of 3. They’re not even top 4 in publishers either. Hardly a monopoly.
This monopoly stuff has to end.
Microsoft aren’t a monopoly, especially in gaming. Even buying ABK they won’t be even remotely close to a monopoly.
I think everyone saying market consolidation is bad is missing the point for this particular one.
This isn’t Google buying and killing another product. This isn’t AT&T buying and merging something. This is the failed company Activision that bought Blizzard and tarnished its name and branding once again being sold off.
What’s more, this is (effectively) the death of Activision. The bane on gaming since it first started mouthing syllables to the words “corporate profits”.
I can only really see this as a good thing from pretty much any angle you try to look at it from. The fact that the only thing all the comments here have to say is that “consolidation bad” should be very telling. I’m no fan of Microsoft, but they generally let departments have a vision and execute them. They seem to have less awful stories than most tech cultures, so one would imagine that going from managers who don’t care or are actively participating in hazing you to a place where you are given the space to foster your creative ideas… I’m gonna say this consolidation is probably a good thing if only because of the small chance that the workplace culture changes. In regards to the company, there may even finally be a litany of IP have a chance of seeing the light of day again!
Time will tell of course but I’d say all you need to do is read the timeline. The last decade has been nothing but awful actions from Blizzard leading up to the buyout, ranging from people doing multiple different boycotts against them for Blitzchang to their now parent company Activision just going full 1970. Microsoft will never be a golden pinnacle of perfection but they haven’t been fostering workplaces where people feel fear and have their freaking bodily fluids stolen.
I guess I’ll put it this way. Would you rather have the execs behind CoD and WoW or would you rather have the execs behind Halo and Starfield?
Both suck but one is clearly trying to allow space for heart to exist while having lots of skeletons and decomposing corpses in the closet while the other is whipping its junk out and rubbing it in your face while laughing about making skeletons… too much? lol
“Execs behind Starfield”
The same execs that bought the company already half way through development of Starfield, and rather than delivering anything new or of value, only wanted to make sure it was extinguished on other systems?
As for “execs behind Halo,” the less said the better. I’ve never seen a series driven so hard into the ground.
It’s almost certainly a positive to see Bobby Kotick (boy do I struggle to maintain this site’s cardinal rule as far as he goes ) losing influence in the “AAA” games industry; but it’s not good to see MS buying every studio they can get hold of. Both these things can be true simultaneously.
My biggest concern with MS’s rampant acquisition spree is what happens when there’a an economic downturn (as already seems to be the near future); will those newly acquired studio be subject to the corporate euphemism that is dOWnSiZiNg? How many working on moderately niche titles will be out of a job and their work indefinitely shelved?
They will be anyway, Microsoft doesn’t know how to run studios. They have little to show for in the last 23 years.
only wanted to make sure it was extinguished on other systems?
I hope you’re similarly malicious about Sony’s exclusives too.
Well, ask me when Sony buys an entire publisher and makes all their future games exclusive.
I like the use of the ‘publisher’ qualifier so that there can’t be talk of the numerous studios Sony has acquired over the years that only produce games for Playstation.
When did Xbox last make a game Xbox exclusive?
Redfall although that may have been a blessing more than a curse.
Okay there… And before thay Sony was trying to lock Starfield away on their side so what’s your point? The current market is driven by exclusives thanks very much to Sony and Nintendo.
I would argue there’s a huge difference between, say, one year of timed exclusivity for one game, versus buying an entire publisher and making every single one of their future games exclusive.
On the flip side those who really dislike hardware locks requiring specific devices to run games would see a console only exclusive a bigger concern.
Since viewed from PCs it isn’t just a Microsoft game, but one that can be played on Linux with Proton and possibly MacOS with their game porting toolkit with various different hardware configurations as opposed to a locked down proprietary one.
Once Sony shows a much bigger effort to embrace open hardware options as opposed to trying to funnel people to their proprietary one with unknown status of future ports I will be less wary of their attempts at acquisitions. And well Nintendo never will.
That’s only because Microsoft has no taste and can’t figure out how to actually create an IP.
And Sony and Nintendo aggressively want to push towards proprietary hardware exclusives. Sony has improved in that area, but every exclusive is still a big question on if it’ll even be available on the PC and if so when. Just the long release schedule is an attempt to draw more people who can’t wait to a proprietary closed ecosystem.
Forza. That’s it. They weren’t behind Fable, they weren’t behind gears of war, they weren’t behind halo. Microsoft has nothing to show here. Every developer they’ve bought in the past has turned out nothing special afterward, just sequels of diminishing quality.
The same execs that bought the company already half way through development of Starfield, and rather than delivering anything new or of value, only wanted to make sure it was extinguished on other systems?
Sony were reportedly in talks to purchase full exclusivity of Starfield, so can’t blame MS.
They don’t get credit for it. It wouldn’t have been a Sony game either.
It’s likely it would if been marketed as one, just like I’m sure it’ll have Microsoft plastered all over it when the time comes.
The lesson here is all large corporations can’t be trusted.
I don’t think that’s true. Microsoft was afraid of this happening but there was zero evidence it was going to.
It was one of the reasons why they bought zenimax, so there was clearly enough evidence for Microsoft to spend $8bil.
Please show me the evidence, I would love to see it.
My main argument against the acquisition is that the morons behind Activision/Blizzard will get a ridiculous payout
These people should get a lifetime ban from executive positions, not a payout
I don’t see this as a bad thing but it’s also not a great thing. It’s like watching one village-crushing giant team up with another village-crushing giant because one of the giants isn’t crushing enough villages to be healthy. So they will now crush villages together in hopes both can eat a lot better.
It’s like aww, they found family… But also they’ll probably crush us at noon so there is that.
Your comment made me step back a minute, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I tend to agree with your assessment after looking at this scenario more closely. I’m no fan of Microsoft but Activision isn’t exactly a great studio. Only time will tell!
To be clear, overall I don’t disagree that more consolidation is bad. It’s literally just this instance. Activision needs to die and be restructured.
Yeah, this is like watching two bad parents fight for custody of a child. Microsoft is ab-so-lutely going to limit the reach and quality of this game off their own system. They might fulfill the letter, but their intentions are clear.
lemmy needs an op indicator
It does (on the website – if you’re using an app, that’s on your app creator). OP simply hasn’t replied to any comments in the thread yet. Last I saw, kbin was missing the OP indicator, but that shouldn’t affect you on beehaw.
I’m seeing it from the browser, I’m from the beehaw instance, I didn’t see the op indicator, I saw it was by the username
The consolidation of the gaming industry will be just another tale of oligopoly in a capitalist society I guess. Yaaay.
We’re heading towards the balkanization of all digital content, DRM is the method they will use to enforce their rule.
Piracy isn’t just moral at this stage, you’re obligated to participate as a means to resist.
Despite not pirating PC games due to not wanting to risk viruses I am very invested in the cracking scene, since they lead to positive outcomes of some companies removing DRM earlier if a crack comes out. Used to be they’d just be left in indefinitely. Thank you pirates.
The indie industry is also growing a lot these days
Agreed, besides for a few companies in the triple A space the indie scene has grown so much to the point where I don’t feel like I’m missing out on great gameplay, stories, and/or graphics anymore.
On one hand this just means further consolidation of an already oligopolic industry. On the other hand, Activision is a terrible company run by a terrible man, so it’s not like things could get much worse.
It’s not really about Activision being bought though, it’s about Microsoft buying them.
To be honest, this is why I’ve been of two minds regarding the whole thing.
ActivisionBlizzard needs a complete structural change. That’s not going to happen without someone else acquiring them, which they were seeking out themselves.
That it’s Microsoft who did that kind of sucks, but if not them, it probably would have just been someone like Embracer who’s also currently consolidating a lot of IP. Tencent is another option.
If Sony acquired them, it would have led to the same fight, only it’d be Microsoft complaining.
I understand why Microsoft is probably one of the worse options here, due to Game Pass and having their own console, but I don’t think there was ever going to be a good outcome for everyone here. It was ActBlizz who wanted to sell and it was never going to be a cheap acquisition.
Some other deal would have gone through (and be challenged), and I think people would still have issues with it regarding their market share.
I think to many of us, Microsoft is definitely the best option for someone buying Activision/Blizzard. They have been willing to give new life to old IP, they have given purchased studios freedom and support to follow their projects and take the time needed, they bring games to both PC and console and now many more platforms with Cloud Gaming, and they have a generally professional work culture.
Microsoft are the best option by far.
Sony wouldn’t, and shouldn’t, be allowed to buy them even if they could afford them. They’re the market leader and we know they would make everything exclusive straight away.
The only other options are companies like Embracer, Tencent, Amazon, or Apple. None of them would be good. Microsoft are basically going to maintain the status quo, while opening up the games to more people on more services.
Sony has bought exactly 1 existing game of note, Destiny, and neither it or Bungies next game going to be Playstation exclusives.
Microsoft has bought all of Zennimax and will be taking all future games off Playstation.
So I don’t know what you’re basing your points on.
So how long until Microsoft restricts all Activision or Blizzard games to being only on Xbox or PC?
im still waiting to play spider-man and god of war
I understand your point but its odd that you picked 2 games that aren’t PlayStation exclusives lol. Theyre on pc
Apples and oranges. Those were created as Playstation exclusives, not an existing property potentially made exclusive years after the fact. Decades later, Mario games are still almost entirely Nintendo-only. That’s the comparison for God of War, not Call of Duty.
It’s still an example of why some prefer Microsoft, since Sony and Nintendo are still very much in the business of pushing people towards using proprietary hardware. Even Linux and Mac users benefit from a game coming out to PC versus console only or a delayed PC release despite no native port with improvements in proton and Mac’s Game Porting tool.
Just as there are those who dislike Microsoft for its proprietary software and patterns of abuse of market dominance.
Those two games are both on PC
Yes after much delay and future sequels not an absolute guarantee either.
Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) CEO Jim Ryan shot down the idea of PlayStation 5 (PS5) exclusive games also launching on PC from day one.
Ryan says that the primary goal of console first-party games is to build the game for the PlayStation experience. He added that overall reactions from fans have been “favorable” when games arrive a couple of years after initial release.
https://insider-gaming.com/sony-ceo-jim-ryan-says-ps5-exclusives-wont-launch-on-pc-day-one/
Their hardware is the priority and main focus over an open hardware platform, so while I love that Sony has started releasing exclusives even if it is 3-4 years later it wouldn’t shock me if they ceased future plans either.
I think they might go the other way and use it as leverage to push Sony to release cross platform games
Sony already does though, just on PC.
Only a handful of games and only after they are several years old. But not the whole franchise, so unless you have a PlayStation or had one in the past and played the other games in the franchise, you may be missing too much story to understand what’s going on.
Other than Spider-Man, it really feels like Sony coming out with games on PC is just to get you to buy a PlayStation to finish the franchise. Almost like a demo.
I appreciate what Sony has done, and I had a ton of fun playing Horizon Zero Dawn and Spider-Man, but as much as I want to play Uncharted, people tell me that I just can’t start from the end of that series. And I don’t really feel motivated to get God of War knowing they may wait 5+ years to put Valhalla on PC.
Yeah, Sony still is very much focused on pushing people to proprietary hardware. I’m glad they changed in some aspects as they saw the lost market potential of letting Microsoft dominate in the PC area. But, it is telling that if Sony bought a studio my first worry would be about games no longer being released day 1 on PC whereas that worry doesn’t exist for Microsoft. So Sony has improvements to make.
I’d like to see this go through just to get Bobby Kotick out.
I still don’t understand all the people who are cheering this on. Why is consolidation of the industry a good thing. Is it really just because you want the games on gamepass?
Edit: in retrospect, I do agree I would be happy to see the leadership be ousted from acti-blizz. Since the merger is happening, I may as well see the good in it (if they are indeed getting ousted, that remains to be seen). I do think it is a worrying trend overall though
Yeah, I have mixed feelings.
I would ideally like Blizzard to split from Activision and have their leadership replaced, but realistically, I don’t see a path to that happening, and I don’t imagine it could recreate the original Blizzard anyway. Talent has moved on. Circumstances have changed.
Meanwhile, although Microsoft has been a problematic giant for almost the entire history of personal computing, their problems (as far as I know) do not include routine abuse/harassment or silencing support of human rights on behalf of the Chinese government.
Given the choice between no change and this change, I think I prefer this change. I might actually play a Blizzard game again if it goes through.
A company I actively hate is being merged into a company that I tolerate. The level of scum coming from Microsoft doesn’t even compare to Bobby “exploit on a yearly basis” Kotick.
In general, I want a greater variety of products from a greater variety of developers/producers. Activision deserves to fucking die, and Microsoft hasn’t managed to develop any ire from me in the last 4-5 years. So, the nuance wins, and I am happy Microsoft won this specific case.
It’s less the focus on consolidation and more getting out the very problematic leadership from Activision (Bobby and his crew). Not that Microsoft is a bastion of progressive thought or leadership, but it’s suspected they would be much less likely to have covered up things like the Cosby room, suicide due to harassment, or the theft of breast milk. Activision’s leadership has some deep seated problems with sexism in general.
Yeah this is how I feel. I don’t think that stopping this merger is going to make triple a games a much less hyper-capitalistic hellscape but I feel like forcing a change of hands might mean better conditions for the abk devs, because from what I’ve heard from friends that have worked at Microsoft’s studios they’ve got a decent track record for employee care. Nothing remarkable, mind, but if it gets the devs away from toxic hypermasculine leadership and also gives them more security to make better games, I’m willing to nod the merger along. ABK’s games have long had a human cost that I’m not super keen to see them continue to pay yknow
I think that’s a fair perspective. The leadership there is very problematic and I would be glad to see them gone. I just hope the industry doesn’t continue down this path
is there any indication that microsoft intends to clean house?
That’s just because Microsoft is being nice, for now. In the future of they decide to change their tune, they can.
Normally, I would not be happy about this, but this is the exception. Even as a Mac gamer (and please don’t at me - I have had decades of sass coming from the PC community. Let me enjoy my platform. I get what I need) this is a win. Activision was always poison for Blizzard. At the bare minimum, Microsoft will enforce corporate HR standards - may not be awesome standards, but it’s a lot better than Activision turning a blind eye. And it’s in Microsoft’s best interest to support native Mac development where it exists (and while I don’t see Blizzard ramping up their Mac dev team to previous (if meager) levels, I expect that the games I enjoy will continue to work fine on my machine, which is a modest ask.
I mean, if Microsoft bent over backwards to prop up Apple in those dark days (and you could have concussed me with a feather when Gates announced MS was investing in Apple IIRC on stage during an Apple keynote) they’ll support other platforms.
Should all gaming fall under several big umbrellas? No. But getting the Activision Board and C-suite out of the “day to day” of studio development can’t hurt.
From what I’ve heard, Blizzard’s C-suite and company culture was already poison before Activision. I’m not sure Microsoft will care about much more than getting a profit out of the deal.
It would be funny if sony decided to release their games for pc only for linux, just to spite microsoft.
Slim chance of it happening, but one can dream.I mean playstation runs on Linux…
The PlayStation operating system is based on FreeBSD.
As primarily a Playstation and Nintendo gamer, I think this acquisition is going to be 99% bad news for me. Oh well.
Can I ask why? Microsoft has a monetary incentive to push the games to other platforms wherever possible. Yeah they may hold a few back (see Starfield) to try and sell consoles but I don’t expect them to withhold all. There were some interesting articles that this deal is more about the mobile gaming (King) rather than COD or other AB games.
As an Xbox and Nintendo owner I feel Sony/Nintendo have done more harm to the industry by reinforcing exclusives (both times and complete) than Microsoft. Wouldn’t it be in Microsoft’s right to do what the market leaders are doing and take advantage of exclusives to try and gain market share back? We also saw with testimony/discovery during the trial that Sony would often say one thing publicly and another internally. I think Sony only opposed this cause they wanted to stoke the fire of fandoms.
Exactly. Sony have spent years leveraging their market leading position to further put them in the lead via paying to keep content and games off Xbox. Their market position is their strength and they leverage it. Microsoft’s strength is their financial power, and they’re now finally leveraging it. Sony need to be pulled back to the pack and pulled in line with their anti-consumer practices. The more market share and dominance they get the worse they get for consumers, as they’ve shown many times.
Sony has the superior hardware, and superior first party titles. Sony has often financed some third party development which keeps things playstation exclusives, but to my knowledge this has always been new IP not existing sequels like Microsoft has done in previous generations.
No console has had superior hardware since 1992. The release of the IBM VGA and Gravis UltraSound sealed the superiority of the PC, a title it has held ever since.
The only time Sony’s ever had stronger hardware was PS3, which was a dumpsterfire that never even ended in a profit. PS1 < NS4. PS2 < GCN. PS4 < Xbox One (by a small margin). PS5 < Xbox Series X.
The only thing they have to their name is a bit of code made for their platform and not others, and the opportunity to buy a $700 headset that’s outclassed by a standalone $400 headset.
The best thing that ever happened to Sony was a) Nintendo using cartridges to solidify FF as a PS franchise, and b) Sega marketing Nintendo as “for kids” back in the 90s, a stereotype they’ve never been able to get away from.
That is however, with the caveat that all Xbox games have to run on Series S as well.
And nearly all PS5 games have to run on PS4. I fail to see your point.
Not true. There are now current gen only games, and the Xbox Series S is current gen. It’s really become a problem. I think Balder’s Gate is getting delayed on Xbox because of problems running it on S. Microsoft doesn’t allow developers to support the X and not the S.
I didn’t say they had the highest specs on paper, I said they were superior, and I was talking about now.
The PS5 outperforms the Series X in most games despite having slightly worse specs on paper. But it’s basically the same. The fact that you can get a digital console for $400 and add a standard Nvme drive instead of a proprietary card makes the whole package way cheaper too.
But I’d you want to talk about past consoles, the N64 having a much faster CPU didn’t matter a ton when the limitations of carriage storage prevented or delayed a lot of third party titles. They did the same thing by using the mini disc in the game cube. Sony screwed this up during the PS3 era with how difficult it was to program for. But the 360 was defective, and the wii was under powered and pretty much broke them off to do their own thing. so that’s really a wash.
Phil Spencer said every single future Zenimax game is going to be exclusive, so it’s not just a few being held back.
Microsoft are no longer interested in selling consoles necessarily, otherwise they’d be holding stuff back from PC as well. They’re interested in getting people into their ecosystem through Game Pass.
And while I agree with you that Sony and Nintendo have used plenty of anti-consumer practices, Microsoft has also done so in the past and I think the only reason they’ve been more pro-consumer of late is because they’ve been the underdog for a long time now. I would be anticipating a change in their behaviour the more people they get to subscribe to Game Pass, and this Activision-Blizzard deal is a huge step towards that.
It’s ActiBlizz. You aren’t missing much.
As for Starfield, it’s a Bethesda game. Even if it weren’t exclusive to Microsoft platforms, you’d still be seriously missing out if you played it on anything other than PC. Bethesda games without mods, like sundaes without toppings, just aren’t complete.