2y ago

Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard

www.theverge.com

"In a ruling submitted today, Judge Corley said the following:

Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision has been described as the largest in tech history. It deserves scrutiny. That scrutiny has paid off: Microsoft has committed in writing, in public, and in court to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for 10 years on parity with Xbox. It made an agreement with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty to Switch. And it entered several agreements to for the first time bring Activision’s content to several cloud gaming services. This Court’s responsibility in this case is narrow. It is to decide if, notwithstanding these current circumstances, the merger should be halted—perhaps even terminated—pending resolution of the FTC administrative action. For the reasons explained, 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. "

161 comments

This is really a tough one. I hate consolidation, but I also really hate Bobby Kottick.
- Well, you're really gonna hate the fat pay out he gets.
  
  He was always going to get it though
  
  I don't care how much he gets as long as he isn't in charge anymore.
- Kotick gets rewarded by the deal going through. Billions of dollars from the sale. Worst case for him after that is a few hundred million from a golden parachute if he's fired. We have no real reason to think he will (or won't, to be clear) be fired though, so there's a very real chance this is full reward for him: giant piles of money and continues to get to run Activision-Blizzard, just with Microsoft bosses above him.
  The deal going through isn't something you want if you hate him.
  
  He was filthy rich anyway, a few hundred million more doesn't make any difference. If the deal gets him out, then that's still a small win, despite Microsoft owning even more developers
  
  The only reason I'm for the merger is that I know how much Microsoft can affect a corporations executive structure. I would hope they are already planning to replace him already, but either way he won't last when he gets tossed into MS' culture.
  At least, that is what I'm hopping.
- Is there any news what will happen to him? Usually on buy out like this, the previous CEO will be appointed as VP or other executive in parent company
- At least Kotick is capable of making good game franchises before killing them with endless sequels. Microsoft is completely incompetent at making games unless it's a driving sim. This is the final nail in Bliizard's coffin. Bye bye Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo.
  
  It potentially could have opposite effect. Spencer said that one of the IPs he wanted to revive was StarCraft
  
  Microsoft is completely incompetent at making games
  I mean, AoE was pretty awesome
  
  I don't think Kotick was really in the picture when all their game franchises were being created. The only thing he's good at is acquiring already successful games and companies and then squeezing everything he can out of them before they turn to shit.
What's the point of all these lawsuits over mergers when every single time there is clearly a monopolistic merger it just goes through anyways.
- The issue in this instance is that's its hard to prove that a company not even close to leading to the market is going to somehow dominate that market through a single (albeit large) acquisition.
  
  It's not a "single" acquisition though. Microsoft have been acquiring huge companies (Bethesda, for example), hit games (Minecraft), and key development parters from competition (remember Rare?) from the beginning of Xbox.
  To think that they spent all of those billions of dollars to buy out everything but that they aren't going to use that to benefit their platforms, is just crazy to me.
  Just like they said in one of their internal emails, they are in a unique position to spend their competition out of business, and the entire industry will be worse for it.
- As much as I hate Activision Blizzard as a publisher and Bobby Kotick as a person, I feel this level of corporate consolidation is a terrible thing for the games industry and gamers.
  There is so much more to this than CoD being on Playstation or not...
- Well the good thing here is that there was several concessions MS has made in contracts to ensure it’s mitigated. That’s why it’s necessary to go through the trial even if it isn’t likely going to be in your favor. Small victories
- So that you think rich people have rules. Justice theater
Oh great, more consolidation and monopoly building.
- 'Tis the era of Indy Games, my friend. Abandon the Graphically amazing games that cannot be built upon passion due to have dev teams of 10,000 strong. Instead, embrace the smaller titles developed by less than 10 people whom cry with joy at the prospect of showering you with entertainment and art.
  
  You're saying this 3 weeks before BG3 drops lol
  This is the best year for big studios in a loooong time
  
  Facts, battlebit remastered is going to go down as one of the best releases of the year, and I think it was developed by just 3 people
  
  By Steam Deck
  Stop buying AAA games
  Subscribe to Humble Choice
  Enjoy gaming again
  
  What are some good venues to discover indie games? I've been checking YT channels like Wanderbots and Splattercatgaming and the only subreddit I still go back to is GameDeals but I'm sure there's a lot of places to get to know about new and old indies of specific genres
As much as I hate Activision Blizzard as a publisher and Bobby Kotick as a person, I feel this level of corporate consolidation is a terrible thing for the games industry and gamers.
There is so much more to this than CoD being on Playstation or not...
Break Microsoft, Meta and Google. They will kill humanity
I don't care about "monopolies" and "consolidation"
I just care about the possibility of Guitar Hero being revived god dammit
- Clone hero is fun.
  I gave up on guitar hero after they implemented the greedy "tokens" model on GH: Live. It was very lame. You had to play a radio station of sorts to get tokens. Tokens could be used to play a song of your choice. When you ran out you had to play the radio station or buy more with real money lol.
  
  Does Clone Hero have the character customization thing? It's totally pointless, but I enjoyed having my custom band on the stage.
  
  I love CH. Haven't played in years though.
  GH:TV was super cool though in my opinion,, but yeah the token stuff was dumb. I spent a lot of time just jamming to music videos. That's basically all I did in Love lol
- I just want THPS 3+4 :( CURSE YOU, ACTIVISION!!!
- I'm hoping for DJ hero lol
  I still want the DLC
- The only games I ever sold my soul for were eudemon online, guitar hero, for a short while destiny, and stardew valley.
  I have been bored with most games that have came out throughout the timeline but guitar hero holds a special place in my heart and I would absolutely love to have a new one come out.
  We tried the band one a while back and it just didn't hit the same.
  
  I too became addicted to destiny during beyond light and witch queen. I finally kicked the habit before lightfall. Based on the reviews, looks like we made the right choice !
While I absolutely hate the fact that the gaming industry is being consolidated into a few massive corps, I am very excited for the entire Activision Blizzard umbrella to be under new leadership.
I know a lot of people (rightfully) are against it . But the way Activision/Blizzard has been run has been shambles and needs at least some kind of change. Plus the scrutiny has lead to several concessions by MS that will help curtail future antitrust issues for the most part.
- They're run more effectively than Microsoft has run their gaming division for the past ~15 years or so... Microsoft's gaming leadership has seen one of the most valuable gaming IPs, Halo, flounder again and again and again. They closed all their game studios and spent a whole generation with minimal first party exclusives, they did I don't know how much damage to Arkane with Redfall...
  More generally, Microsoft's approach to leading their game studios is to leave them to run the way the studio was ran pre-acquisition. Activision-Blizzard is not going to see major changes to the way they run if this deal does go through (pending CMA). Microsoft will Activision to be run the way it is now, and only intervene if profits dip too much (considering Halo, though, that might take quite the dip).
  I don't get the assumption that Activision is going to see some major cleanup from this. They won't.
  
  Well at least it's gonna clean up the really horrible practices at Activision Blizzard with all the SA allegations. MS is infinitely better for the workers than ABK.
  
  they did I don’t know how much damage to Arkane with Redfall…
  Microsoft aren't to blame for Redfall. Redfall started development in 2018 but Microsoft didn't buy them til 2021. Redfall sucks because Arkane Austin made a bad game without any input from MS.
  Microsoft didn't close all their studios either. In fact they've barely closed any actual studios that have made xbox games. They closed ones that were bad though. Lionhead closed because Fable Legends was bad. I was in the beta, and it was not a good game. It would have absolutely flopped and killed the studio. They closed Ensemble almost 15 years ago. That's about it really.
  
  Hmm are they ? Yes 343 has been meh. But I’ve enjoyed the new Gears games, Forza hasn’t missed a step, Psychonauts may have been my GOTY, Ori has become one of my favorite series’s of all time, HiFi Rush was a surprise hit as well as Pentiment. Also the issue with Arkane was Bethesda mandating them to make it a GaaS before their acquisition with MS; other wise they were hands off (which they’ve done to a fault).
  Meanwhile ATVI recently has been Sekiro and Diablo? I’m probably forgetting some games for sure. And let’s not forget all the SA that have run rampant at that company unfortunately :(
  I think after recent developments and from how MS has been changing their tune, it feels they’ve learnt from their extreme hands off position. At least I hope so. Hopefully they get to that perfect middle ground that Sony has achieved
- On games side, ActiBlizz is much better than MS. I'm more concerned if they instead become like other MS studio, releasing games every few years and forgotten immediately
  
  That's a bit of a massive overgeneralization. The list of games studios under MS is pretty large now and a lot of them make great games:
  343 Industries The Coalition Compulsion Games Double Fine Productions The Initiative inXile Entertainment Mojang Studios Ninja Theory Obsidian Entertainment Playground Games Rare Turn 10 Studios Undead Labs World's Edge Xbox Game Studios Publishing Bethesda Softworks Alpha Dog Games Arkane Studios id Software MachineGames Roundhouse Studios Tango Gameworks ZeniMax Online Studios
  The thing is, MS is usually hands off for a few years after they acquire a company. Game launches can be hit and miss based on how good the individual studios are. I don't think just because they're owned by MS is a good indicator of whether or not they make good games.
  I wouldn't expect Activision/Blizzard to change much. They're a huge company. The only good thing would be maybe getting rid of Bobby Kotick
- Based on the track record, they might not be the ones to whip Activision/Blizzard in to shape.
  Honestly, I have my doubts that even call of duty will survive this.
It's amazing to me how short-sighted this decision is. Yeah sure keep wide access to CoD for 10 years to get the FTC off their back and then watch all that fall away immediately after. For us this is potentially decent gains in the short term but certainly contributes to this industry turning to crap long term.
- potentially decent gains in the short term but certainly contributes to this industry turning to crap long term.
  Hmm where have I seen that before
- What's really nice is that the big studio games are shit anyways, they've made it easy to enjoy life without feeling like you're missing out on some dumb crappy games that rip you off.
I hate this consolidation of the gaming market but Microsoft seems to not have sex pest as direct bosses so that’s a good thing… makes me feel less scummy if I buy d4
- Wait until they set Edge as the default browser every time you start one of their games
  
  Edge is my default…
- Wait until all ActiBlizz bosses given a job in Microsoft
  
  I mean could that happen? Sure. But the people that where most at fault would be redundant at Microsoft so they will get paid to go away. Half the reason this started was because of the bullshit coming out about Bobby and the boys
- Be honest, you bought D4 anyway, didn't you?
  
  Nope. I thought bout it but as much as I’d like it because I love a good dopamine hit from an ARPG I just kept playing totk and kept away from blizzard. An SC3 would probably be harder for me if I’m completely honest but so far it is not in my library
Fucking hell. We really need to shatter all these cancerous megacorps.
RIP any new blizzard games in the UK
- UK will probably still get the games, they'll just go through different publishers.
- The CMA agreed to negotiate so I think it's likely that a deal will be made soon. The UK doesn't want to be left out
- I believe the CMA have opened up talks to get further assurances when it passes. Best for both parties.
- Hopefully that all gets figured out for those in the UK. It would really suck for those there being locked out of new games.
  
  I live in the UK, and have no idea what you're talking about. ELI5?
Just a friendly reminder that the judge’s son works for Microsoft.
- Irrelevant. The FTC knew and had no issues so why do you?
  
  Read the linked article for some good potential reasons it's an issue (e.g. Microsoft has been doing a lot of layoffs recently, why is her son still employed?)
  But that was written before the ruling. Now that we have it, her ties to Microsoft offer at least one potential explanation to the nonsense of the decision (IMO, obviously).
  For an excellent write up on what happened, check out Matt Stoler's recent article.
As far as poison goes, I'd much rather pick Phil Spencer over Bobby Kotick.
- My thinking exactly. Never though I'd see the day to be happy Microsoft is acquiring some company.
I'm just hoping to get starcraft and Warcraft spinoffs out of this. Lots of potential with those IP's. Since 3 is never getting properly fixed, Warcraft 4 would also be nice.
- Your expectations should be set on low. MS with their infinite money couldn't do shit with Battletech and Shadowrun, not to mention Rare.
  
  I think with today's audience those IP's have a lot more strength than Battletech or Shadowrun. If you think Warcraft or Starcraft exclusivity to an Xbox console won't sell units I don't know what to say.
  Rare certainly is an interesting one. They had a dark decade there at Microsoft no doubt. Things are getting better. The studio itself aside I think their IPs are getting decent utilization with the upcoming perfect dark and last gen's killer instinct. They have a lack of banjo for sure. Little shocking at this point. Seemed like the smash inclusion was big enough a hit to see sales.
  
  Are you mistaking MicroSoft for Harebrained Schemes? Because they made amazing games with those IPs
- Fixing the shit heap that was Warcraft 3 Reforged would be a start.
They'll go nuts on mobile gaming, I saw it on youtube
- IMO, that seems to be their bigger play. Gaining market share in those non-console avenues. The console stuff is just cherry on top for them.
Reminder that 343 is the only AAA studio that has never made a good game.
I don't have much faith in MS managing ActBlizz, and that's coming from someone who generally likes Microsoft stuff. From what they did to Ensemble, Bungie, Lionhead, and Rare (where is my Viva Pinata 2, Phil?), they are way too content to just buy their way into stuff and stumble through everything by tossing money everywhere. I don't think Phil Spencer is the right person to lead Xbox even if he is a "gamer", because Xbox had just been ran poorly for years on the studio side, and adding Activision Blizzard isn't going to improve things.
- Halo 4 was dope as hell
  
  It wasn't great for a halo game though.
I'm very torn on this one, Microsoft becoming this big can't be good but Activision is such a dumpster fire that there is no way this doesn't help them get their shit together.
Still better than Tencant
- This is the main thing people aren't seeing - if MS don't buy them, Tencent or Amazon or Apple will. MS are by far the best owner.
- Ten can indeed.
  
  Oops, I'll let it haha
Capitalism is doing its thing, consolidation.
At least in this case, I don't think you can possibly do much worse than the current ownership aside from intentional self destruction, so Microsoft as owners can only be equally bad or better.
Wow, feels like a really big moment.
RIP UK gamers
This whole thing was a giant joke. This is no surprise
I really don’t like this on again off again relationship news.
To say the least it will be interesting seeing how everything moves forwards
ActiBlizz is shit, Microsoft is shit, but without Kottick I for some reason hope Blizz will improve
Companies should not be allowed to buy other companies
- How come?
  
  Because it leads to 6 companies making 95% of the food we eat
If they start banning everything Activision makes from Steam, Gog, or other stores, then probably they'll get a nice lawsuit. But tbh, if you don't like Microsoft, then don't buy Microsoft products and that will henceforth include Activision products.
- Sure. But then Microsoft will buy Sega so you shouldn't buy Sega products either. And then Microsoft will buy Capcom, so you can't buy Capcom products either. So then Microsoft will buy SquareEnix so y-
  Wait guys, I think corporate consolidation might be bad.

161 comments