US Federal Trade Commission to Lead Antitrust Review of Microsoft-Activision Blizzard Deal | MMORPG.

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US Federal Trade Commission to Lead Antitrust Review of Microsoft-Activision Blizzard Deal | MMORPG.com

The huge deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard will come under antitrust review by the US Federal Trade Commission, which could mean a tough review.

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MonsutaMan

WoW on gamepass......

Nope......

FFXI needs to get on one of these platforms, but POL.........

AlexanderVendi

I am positive many deals where made behind closed doors, wow was dying and there is sooooo much investment into it not only from blizzard's pov but more importantly from the players. They will loose all credible rep if they let wow die and future ip's will suffer significantly.
In the end is the small companies trying to climb up that are the ones suffering from this *deal*

emperorhades1

Saw this coming from a mile away.

cheyane

TwistedSister77

FTC... trying to get headlines and pocket change... shake baby shake!

There are no antitrust issues, the gaming industry is so massive... and platforms allow for competitors & new disrupters. 

A lot of politicians are getting some nice steak dinners by lobbyists. 

kitarad

This is all just a lot of bark with no bite. No worries.

Lumeria

Curious, does Ten Cent have to go through something like this kind of scrutiny?

Utinni

Lumeria said:

Curious, does Ten Cent have to go through something like this kind of scrutiny?

Yes. This isn't scrutiny, it's normal practice for the FTC to review extremely large mergers and acquisitions. It's part of why the FTC exists. This is getting headlines on gaming sites because of the size of the purchase, Microsoft, and blizz=bad clicks.

Vrika

TwistedSister77 said:

FTC... trying to get headlines and pocket change... shake baby shake!

There are no antitrust issues, the gaming industry is so massive... and platforms allow for competitors & new disrupters. 

A lot of politicians are getting some nice steak dinners by lobbyists. 

Games industry itself is large.

But Microsoft is using this as strategic move to compete against console hardware manufacturers and against game streaming services. It's big enough purchase that the question needs to be asked, are those industries big enough?

Mendel

Vrika said:

TwistedSister77 said:

FTC... trying to get headlines and pocket change... shake baby shake!

There are no antitrust issues, the gaming industry is so massive... and platforms allow for competitors & new disrupters. 

A lot of politicians are getting some nice steak dinners by lobbyists. 

Games industry itself is large.

But Microsoft is using this as strategic move to compete against console hardware manufacturers and against game streaming services. It's big enough purchase that the question needs to be asked, are those industries big enough?

Microsoft has always tried to operate as a 'borderline' monopoly.  Browser, operating system, Explorer and the like.  Now potentially expanding their presence in the console and game streaming arenas.

When there is no effective competition, your company wins.  That might as well have been Microsoft's corporate motto from the start.  But the real losers are the customers.

To paraphrase a famous movie quote:

"Microsoft, what is best in life?

To crush your competition, see their employees driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their fanbois."

Asm0deus

Nice Conan quote!