FTC Vs Microsoft Thread

What is the purpose and end goal of all exclusives? To deny your competitor access to games. What is purpose of acquisitions? To deny your competitor games. Some of the games listed have no release dates for Xbox despite being out for years, making them essentially acquired content. Xbox has more games on PS made by their acquired studio than Sony. You all need to stop with this nonsense that there are more noble methods of denying gamers access to games. The only positives with MS acquisitions is that every game they make is multiplatform. The same cannot be stated for Sony.

Sony good, Microsoft bad. Some people just don't understand logic.

Firstly, we disagree on the end goal of exclusivity. Exclusives drive users to your platform. They are what distinguish you from your competitor. For example, Xbox is known for Halo. Playstion is known for The Last of Us. Neither of them is known for Call of Duty.

Second, exclusives can be a result of limited budgets. multiplatform development is more expensive.

Xbox has more games on PS because they already existed on Playstation before they were acquired. But none of that matters because the two situations are not comparable. MS intends on buying as many third party publishers as it can while Sony is leveraging exclusivity deals with those publishers to make their platform look more attractive while leaving the industry in tact.

You mentioned Final Fantasy which is interesting because Octopath Traveler is a Square Enix game that's on everything EXCEPT Playstation. So if we follow MS's logic, Sony should buy Square Enix so that it never happens again because evil Nintendo made a deal that blocked a game from being made on Playstation. That's what this all sounds like.

The games listed were all developed by third party developers who are for all intents and purposes independent. Halo was made by a studio that was acquired and was considered to be a firsty party. The same applies to Playstation The Last of Us. Both games were made by acquired studios.

Exclusives can be a result of limited budget but that is not the case with the games I have listed.

Xbox is buying publishers for games studios to make games. Sony is buying game studios to make games. The only difference is one is a bulk purchase and the other isn't. The end result is the same, they acquire resources to develop games.

Sony is where it is at because of exclusive deals which did not leave the industry "intact" as you claim it. Whatever that means. Sony was going to make Deathloop, Ghostwire and Starfield all PS exclusives if Zenimax wasn't acquired. Again, stop with the silly notion that there is a noble way of denying gamers access to games.

Your last analogy is so nonsensical I can't even believe you thought that it was sensible to use it. 😂 That is like trying to argue that MS bought Zenimax because one game was made a timed exclusive.🙄

@Pedro: They literally admitted to buying Zenimax because Sony was trying to make Starfield an exclusive in court…

After they made Ghostwire and Deathloop timed exclusives

@Zero_epyon: I'm pretty sure Sony already has deals in place to keep some pretty big Square Enix games from competitor platforms. Or should we pretend Octopath is a system seller?

@kathaariancode: I don’t disagree. Sony still hasn’t bought Square and Square is still putting other titles on other platforms like Switch. I’m not saying one practice is better than the other, just that they’re not comparable.

Octopath games are also on PC. Not exactly what I would call a system seller when I can just play it on PC...or Steam Deck.

Sony was making moves to remove at least three games from Xbox. They succeeded with two timed (FFVII was supposed to be timed and look at the state of that game) of the three. This is not a one-off like Octopath Traveler in which it is the only game that is not on PS. Stop being silly.

@Zero_epyon: Well, they are comparable. Just not the same thing, obviously.

Fanboys try to make it not comparable. This entire ordeal is driven by fanboy nonsense. Locking third-party games to specific hardware was routinely praised by Sony fannies until MS laid into the practice hardcore with Zenimax and AKB and even then, non of the games are exclusive. You can't be supporting third-party exclusives and be surprised by the outcome.

@Pedro:

Starfield would have been timed as well given how Pete Hines reacted to Starfield’s exclusivity vs potential activision titles.

But again. Starfield, a single title, was the main reason for MS to buy Zenimax. You called my analogy nonsensical but yet you’re seemingly defending MS for doing exactly that.

There is no defending. You are making a comparison that is nonsensical. Octopath Traveler is not equal to the value of Starfield, Deathloop or Ghostwire combined and neither on an individual game level. It is that simple.

@kvallyx:

Meanwhile, Xbox was trying to acquire Nintendo, Square and, Midway.

People have *always* been concerned about Microsoft tapping into their warchest and taking over an industry.

This is how this isn't comparable.

But first, let's not pretend that securing exclusivity right for 3rd party title is a new thing that's exclusive to Sony. It's not.

Third party publishers and developers are under no obligation to make game for every platform. Zenimax and AKB are publishers who have(had) the autonomy of deciding which platforms to support and how that benefited them financially. MS, Sony, and Nintendo make offers to secure third party content for their platform and if their offers make sense financially, they'll accept.

When either of the big three buys a publisher, they lose their autonomy unless it's explicitly stated that they could keep their autonomy in their purchase agreement. So when MS bought Zenimax and canceled PS5 versions of Starfield and Redfall, they essentially removed their autonomy and are now locked into making Xbox exclusives.

When has any of Sony, Nintendo, or MS's content exclusivity deals made it applicable across an entire publisher and their games?

Value is irrelevant. Starfield, Redfall, Deathloop, and Ghostwire are all new IPs and at the time had no proven value since none of them were released yet when the deal was done.

Imagine thinking buying up the industry is the same as a timed exclusive.

Long story short, the only reason MS is resorting to this is because they want to put everything on gamepass and Sony is offering enough to convince publishers that their offer makes them more money.

If MS fails to secure those deals because they want to lowball publishers into gamepass then that's their fault.

First, who is pretending when I literally stated "Locking third-party games to specific hardware was routinely praised"

Third-party publishers and developers are under no obligation to sell to any company. See how that works?

Also, as stated numerous times, that are no games being made exclusively for Xbox. I am not sure why you and the Sony fannies gang are rewriting the definition of exclusives as of late. Every game is available on at least two platforms making them multiplatform.

Your weird question holds no merit because even with the acquisition there is no across-the-board exclusivity for all of the content created from the Zenimax acquisition and the same would apply to AKB.

Value is very relevant. If it wasn't then no one would pay for exclusive deals. Now you are trying to argue that Sony paid for these exclusive deals because they saw no value in them?🤔 Octopath Traveler not being on PS is not the same as Starfield, Deathloop, and Ghostwire. It is not remotely comparable and it ignores the fact that the sequel is on PS.

I don't know what's more embarrassing here, Jim Ryan, the FTC or Zero's poor attempt at damage control, hmmm.

@Zero_epyon: imagine thinking Sony isn’t also buying up the industry and has been confirmed to continue to do so going forward.

So I see some hearsay in there with the what other publishers have told Jim bit, which should be stricken as such. His main complaint, as he does not believe it is an exclusivity deal, is that it will drive sales for his competitor. So he wants the FTC to protect his company’s market share lead. That is not what the FTC is for.

@theam0g: I don't care if the deal goes through as I haven't boiught a Craptivision game since the early 360 days, and am only getting my info on this from here.

So from an outsider looking in, it seems like a slam dunk for MS. The omly benefit I see is that gamers may get a Blur 2 from this and that's it.

@Zero_epyon: Sure you would be Cow Epyon.

System Wars history for Cow Epyon began with this current thread and topic. 😂🙄

So it is looking ever more likely the FTC will not get their preliminary injunction.

But I simply have to wonder is MS ready to ink this deal when it's over?

The whole FTC rush for a TRO/PI seemed prompted by conjecture MS and ABK had a CMA workaround and were ready to sign it.

But now it's likely they'll be right back to where they started. The gamer lawsuit got tossed again I heard earlier, but can be amended with 20 days for appealing. When the TRO is up without a PI in the FTC hearings, there's also a 5 day cooldown for appeals if they go for a TRO again.

Given that all parties against the merger appear to only be stalling for time, conservatively speaking, it seems they could have a narrow window to ink this thing if/when the preliminary injunction gets denied, if they again try for a TRO pending appeals (which worse case would again drag it out for months).

So I have to wonder, does MS really have a CMA workaround and will they sign this first opportunity? Guess we'll know soon.

Activision stock price has been climbing steadily as these proceedings have been going more against the FTC's favor from the get-go of their TRO/PI.

Hmm, stock price... stocks. Shit. If there's anything that worries me, even if as this ends a window opens for MS and ABK to ink the deal, out of the blue a ATVI stock holding Sony fanboy calls for a TRO demanding that a new shareholder vote take place first because the closing deadline passed.

Sheeeeee'yit, MS better sign this fucker first opportunity.

Day 3:

I'm confused as to why the FTC went straight to trying to block the merger, instead of reviewing it like all the other regulators. Because they keep turning up to court with an extremely weak case, with the worst kind of "gotcha" attempts that get easily refuted.

I thought the FTC had a much stronger case or knew something we didn't. But it sounds like they're just trying to block the deal for the sake of blocking the deal.

This isn't how regulators should work.

Damn a member of the Respawn team has come out and laid the Smackdown on Jim (lyin cryin) Ryan lol.

From the article posted by @last_lap

“No game dev willingly tries to put out an inferior release with less quality and more bugs. No one would do that. We want to make things that people enjoy and will always try to ship the best product despite any circumstances.

For Jim Ryan to suggest otherwise that is asinine.”

Well said!

lol :P

@HalcyonScarlet: If you read the FTC original complaint you would think it was written by a Sony fanny on this forum.

Sony took FFXVI away from Xbox. Yikes.

@kvallyx: That has to be false. Sony would never do such a thing.🙃

Yup! People are whiteknighting something that is SO MUCH WORSE! It's okay to admit MS sucks in this too guys. It's not just Sony that's clueless and hypocritical here. Bad enough we saw those documents where they wanted to buy SEGA...

How many days is this lasting?

@Pedro: @kvallyx:

lolol :P

@nintendoboy16: I don't care if the buyout goes through or not, but man every post of yours makes me wanna post the the world's smallest violin gif.

You're acting like this is going to create a monopoly, kill gaming etc. All the while Tencent has its claws into nearly everything gaming. But I don't see you concerned with that.

Tencent really has its fingers is so many things game related. I think the issue is that most people aren't even aware.

@Pedro: Yep they're the real evil in this industry, they do deals on the down low all the time, just like the country they're from does.

Some interesting tidbits I found surfing the net.

MS bought Ninja Theory for $117 million

LoU2 cost $220 million to make and had 200 staff working on it

Horizon Forbidden West cost $212 million to make and had 300 staff working on it.

@last_lap: Microsoft already HAS a monopoly on the grander tech industry. And owning one of the biggest third party publishers in the industry adds to that.

@nintendoboy16: Ah using the "tech" industry as an excuse.

MS doesn't have anywhere near a monopoly in gaming (you know what this is all about) in fact Sony and even Nintendo have a bigger monopoly in gaming over MS if you want to get TECHnical.

And even if they own Activision they would not be remotely close to a monopoly in the gaming industry.

@Pedro: C'mon man it's got nothing to do with the gaming industry, it's a tech industry, get it right 😜

@ghostofgolden: And yet devs put their games on there all the time, mustn't hate it that much 🤷‍♂️

MS got dick slapped today holy shit. bobbyK single handedly unraveled all the MS bullshit pr re: gamepass. Glorious!

Bu Bu but owning ATVI won’t mean ms is a monopoly lol.

Only an idiot would believe MS owning AKB would equate to being a monopoly...Ooops.🤭