It's ridiculous that the ATVI acquisition is being blocked given Sony's behaviour over exclusives (even buying exclusive content in 3rd party games like Hogwarts: Legacy).

But sadly, it's an election year and the Dems want to look tough on big tech...

[–] AlexanderTheGreat 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

This is a sub for Xbox gaming not politics. With that in mind, I'd like to remind everyone to please keep all political opinions to yourself. Not everything needs to be politicized.

[–] FantasticFox -1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Then remove all posts about the ATVI acquisition. It's approval by regulators is an inherently political process.

[–] AlexanderTheGreat 4 points 2 years ago

You can easily talk about this court case without politicizing it. This isn't a Democrat vs Republican thing. The FTC, or Politicians (in general, neither side needs to be named), are trying to do something not the "Democrats" or the "Republicans". This space is for discussing gaming aspects, not disagree, arguing, or taking shots at parties. I'm sure there are plenty of over communities out there for that. If you can't seperate those then thos may not be the place for you.

[–] Defaced -1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Microsoft buying Activision is not a good idea. If all you have to go off is cod being added to game pass, then you really don't understand the impact this would have. I have both a series S and a ps5, it's pretty clear Microsoft doesn't have any real draw outside of game pass. Microsoft is resorting to old tactics of buying the competition instead of getting better, buying Activision isn't going to magically make Microsoft a better company and vice versa. Also, why make the discussion political, come on...

[–] FantasticFox -1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I'm not even American so I don't really care about the American politics - but it's pretty clear that it will have an effect on the behaviour of the FTC and the court.

To be honest, I think it would have been better for Microsoft to spend the money on like a hundred smaller studios. But it sets a dangerous precedent when the Government can just come in and order them not to go ahead with the acquisition.

It's not like MSFT would be remotely close to a monopoly even with ATVI. This isn't Standard Oil, but politicians want to make it out to be like that so they can claim a win.

[–] Defaced 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

If you don't care why are you bringing it up? And it's good the FTC is doing it's job... The news about the Indiana Jones game is proof their hesitancy to approve the purchase was justified, it was going to be a multiplatform game before Microsoft bought Bethesda and they made it an Xbox exclusive after that acquisition.

[–] FantasticFox 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I mean I don't care outside of the effect it has on this. Like I'm not a Republican looking to blame the Democrats or vice versa.

Exclusivity is a part of the industry. If they want to tackle that then Sony really ought to be in a lawsuit for anti-consumer practices as well.

[–] AlexanderTheGreat 3 points 2 years ago

I agree. Sony and Microsoft both have some anticonsumer practices that should definitely be looked at by the appropriate agencies. Especially in the exclusivity section. On a biased side note, I hope it goes through as then the games (whether multi platform or first party) should be much more optimized for the Xbox overall then we've been seeing recently.

[–] pandarisu 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I support Microsoft buying Activision, but they are stretching the truth there. They claim that they have consistently been third, however I remember the PS3 not doing well against the Xbox 360, and then of course there's the WiiU.

[–] Zehzin 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Even with the awesome fuck up that were the early PS3 days, it ended up outselling the 360 (I read that year-aligned it was never behind, but I haven't checked). The brand is just too strong and at the time Sony had a really varied platform.

I would say that current gen is the first time in the 3D era where all big players are on the top of their game (I will accept the argument that this happened during the PS2 gen)