Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard

Mr_Buscemi@lemmy.blahaj.zone to Games@lemmy.world – 402 points –
Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard
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. "

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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.

Warcraft or Starcraft exclusivity to an Xbox

🤔😐😶😨🤢🤮

Are you mistaking MicroSoft for Harebrained Schemes? Because they made amazing games with those IPs

No, MS owns the digital rights to FASA games. Harebrained Schemes did what MS couldn't do previously. MS made fps online multiplayer Shadowrun game for Xbox which bombed. After that and a few years later Harebrained came in the picture.