The US basically has no antitrust laws anymore huh?
Blizzard being horrifically bad at managing their business has no bearing on market share or monopoly building. That’s not suddenly okay because the last guy was an asshole.
It’s hard to argue that a company can be a monopoly in an industry when they are third place in that industry (and still will be after said acquisition).
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None of what you said explains how Microsoft today (not 15 years ago, or in some hypothetical future) will have a monopoly before or after this acquisition.
By allowing MS to do this the courts are signing to the world that smaller companies shouldn’t even bother competing because they can never outspend MS’s war chest.
Which company would you have expected to compete in the console space in the foreseeable future that will have changed their minds because of this acquisition? I’m not aware of any, but I wouldn’t mind being shown that this is a real concern.
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Did the judge state this while wearing designer sunglasses, a gold chain, a bunch of diamond rings, and a big bag of money sitting next to them?
The FCC really bungled the case. Hinging pretty much the while thing on Cod and Playstation, which MS was prepared for.
What’s the general temperature on this acquisition?
ABK has been a dumpster fire for a decade, but it seems like a worryingly large move for the gaming scene in general.
It’s a weird one. I’m not really a fan of consolidation, monopolies and huge acquisitions like this in general. But at the same time, like you said, ABK is awful at the moment and I feel like things can only really improve with this deal. I also think that, of the big gaming companies, Xbox is probably the most consumer-friendly brand at the moment. Plus, selfishly, I’m a Game Pass subscriber and this benefits me, ha.
I think, in the short-to-medium term, this merger will probably be beneficial for ABK (and its employees), Microsoft/Xbox and most consumers. In the long term, it really depends on Xbox staying benevolent.
Fantastic… Now it’s all on the UK to come through on this one
We can hope the Microsoft can fix the dumpster fire that is Activision/Blizzard’s leadership.
