Microsoft Microsoft/Activision Blizzard Acquisition - Information Thread, update: The Deal Has Closed

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

FTC will try to block Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard

WWW.CNBC.COM

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The FTC had already sued to block the $68.7 billion acquisition, choosing to bring the case before its internal administrative law judge.

 

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The Federal Trade Commission is set to file for an injunction on Monday seeking to block Microsoft’s
 proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC.

 

By filing for an injunction, the FTC is seeking to stop the acquisition from going through before the deal’s July 18 deadline.

 

 

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

   Good luck, FTC. You’re gonna need it. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

A judge has granted the FTC's request for a temporary restraining order:

 

Microsoft has been temporarily restrained from buying Activision Blizzard, judge rules - The Verge

WWW.THEVERGE.COM

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At least until late June.

 

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A federal court has issued a temporary restraining order that will prevent Microsoft from closing its $68.7 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard — at least for now. The Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint on Monday seeking to get the restraining order and a preliminary injunction, and the court has agreed to the restraining order while it considers that injunction. If the courts grant the injunction as well, the FTC would have a chance to make its legal case before any deal can be done.

 

As a result of today’s order, Microsoft and Activision cannot complete the acquisition until “after 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time on the fifth business day after the Court rules on the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction” or a date set by the court (whichever is later). The court has also set an evidentiary hearing on the preliminary injunction for June 22nd and 23rd, so it’s extremely unlikely these companies will close the transaction this month.

 

 

[crispy4000]

Keeping Bethesda games Microsoft exclusives "powerful evidence" against Activision Blizzard takeover, says FTC

WWW.EUROGAMER.NET

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Microsoft's decision to keep Bethesda's games exclusive is "powerful evidence" against its Activision Blizzard takeover bid, says FTC.

 

The angle the FTC is running with.

[SuperSpreader]

14 minutes ago, crispy4000 said:

Keeping Bethesda games Microsoft exclusives "powerful evidence" against Activision Blizzard takeover, says FTC

WWW.EUROGAMER.NET

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Microsoft's decision to keep Bethesda's games exclusive is "powerful evidence" against its Activision Blizzard takeover bid, says FTC.

 

The angle the FTC is running with.

 

They're not wrong, everyone thinking the 10yr deal is good is a sucka. If anything they should break both companies up. 

 

If ABK already makes games that everyone has access to what's the point of buying them if not to lock in that access?

[SuperSpreader]

(i mean let's be real this whole thing came about because abk employees were walking out due to the sexual harassment issues and kotick wanted a bail out so he called friends at Microsoft who the founder and he had mutual friends in Epstein)

[crispy4000]

Today:

 

Next Year:

Fallout Shelter 2 announced for Xbox Series, PS5 and Switch

Elder Scrolls Blades 2 announced for Xbox Series, PS5 and Switch

Mighty Doom announced for Xbox Series, PS5 and Switch

Elder Scrolls collection announced for Xbox Series, PS5 and Switch

 

etc

[Remarkableriots]

2 minutes ago, crispy4000 said:

Today:

 

Next Year:

Fallout Shelter 2 announced for Xbox Series, PS5 and Switch

Elder Scrolls Blades 2 announced for Xbox Series, PS5 and Switch

Mighty Doom announced for Xbox Series, PS5 and Switch

Elder Scrolls collection announced for Xbox Series, PS5 and Switch

Sony should say keep that shit off our system!

[crispy4000]

From Microsoft's arguements today:

 

 

 

 

Nope, they haven't been consistently 3rd.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

From Stephen Totilo:

 

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FTC: Microsoft's agreements with Nvidia, Nintendo, etc are "filled with loopholes and speculative commitments" 

 

Says Nvidia deal clause shows MS can "unilaterally" opt to renegotiate

 

Says Microsoft has resisted testimony/discovery on the deals. Wants them excluded from hearings

 

 

 

 

In other words, the FTC is seeking to have these agreements excluded from the hearing.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Live blog from The Verge's Tom Warren:

 

FTC v. Microsoft: all the news from the big Xbox courtroom battle - The Verge

WWW.THEVERGE.COM

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Microsoft goes head-to-head with the FTC on June 22nd.

 

[SuperSpreader]

I want egg on MS and ABK's faces so badly. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Sony’s PlayStation chief privately said Microsoft’s Activision deal wasn’t about Xbox exclusives - The Verge

WWW.THEVERGE.COM

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A surprise revelation just minutes into the FTC v. Microsoft hearing.

 

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We’re only minutes into the FTC v. Microsoft hearing, and we’ve already had a bombshell revelation. Sony’s PlayStation chief, Jim Ryan, believed that Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard wasn’t about locking games as Xbox exclusives, according to a newly unsealed email. Microsoft counsel revealed the exchange between Ryan and a former Sony CEO discussing the announcement of the deal last year.

 

“It is not an exclusivity play at all,” said Ryan. “They’re thinking bigger than that and they have the cash to make moves like this. I’ve spent a fair amount of time with [Phil] Spencer Bobby [Kotick] and I’m pretty sure we will continue to see Call of Duty on PlayStation for years to come.”

 

The surprise revelation runs counter to Sony’s arguments against Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal and its filings with regulators. Sony has maintained it fears Microsoft could make Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox or even sabotage the PlayStation versions of the game.

 

Ryan went on to say, “We have some good stuff cooking. I’m not complacent, I’d rather this didn’t happen, but we’ll be OK, we’ll be more than OK.”

 

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Pete Hines has taken the stand.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Pete just testified that there “might be some differences of opinion” on whether Redfall meets the standards of a "AAA" game 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

8 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

Pete just testified that there “might be some differences of opinion” on whether Redfall meets the standards of a "AAA" game 

 

For context, this was in response to an assertion by an FTC lawyer that Redfall was an example of a "AAA game" that was locked off from PlayStation owners due to the Bethesda acqusition.

[SuperSpreader]

35 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

Sony’s PlayStation chief privately said Microsoft’s Activision deal wasn’t about Xbox exclusives - The Verge

WWW.THEVERGE.COM

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A surprise revelation just minutes into the FTC v. Microsoft hearing.

 

 

 

 

 

[crispy4000]

59 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

Sony’s PlayStation chief privately said Microsoft’s Activision deal wasn’t about Xbox exclusives - The Verge

WWW.THEVERGE.COM

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A surprise revelation just minutes into the FTC v. Microsoft hearing.

 

 

 

He's not wrong here.  It was never about trying to make CoD exclusive.  It was about getting Sony to pay them to put it on PS Extra day one, or deal with competitive consequences.

 

The bonus of Microsoft controlling whether Blizzard IP, Tony Hawk, Crash, Spyro, etc, ever release on Playstation again is just icing on the cake.

 

 

Jim will be questioned on it later.  I'm sure he'll flub it in some way regardless.

[SuperSpreader]

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Pete Hines: Starfield would be getting delayed again if it were released on PlayStation.The FTC is arguing that game exclusivity is an anti-competitive move, but Pete Hines is under friendly questioning from Microsoft’s attorneys now, and he’s making the opposite case: that exclusivity lets you streamline a game. The anticipated Xbox exclusive Starfield, he says, wouldn’t be coming out on September 1st if it were also coming out on PlayStation:

“We would not be putting this game out in nine weeks if we were supporting an entire additional platform, in my opinion.”

 

 

So is it easy or not to support all these platforms MSFT???

[crispy4000]

7 minutes ago, SuperSpreader said:

 

So is it easy or not to support all these platforms MSFT???

 

It should be easy enough to port it after the fact.

 

Realistically, we'll see Starfield ported to PS5 the same day we see FFXVI on Xbox Series consoles.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Sarah Bond is now testifying.

[Xbob42]

5 hours ago, SuperSpreader said:

If ABK already makes games that everyone has access to what's the point of buying them if not to lock in that access?

...to have all the revenue go to Microsoft?

[Xbob42]

4 hours ago, Remarkableriots said:

Sony should say keep that shit off our system!

..."our"? 

[SuperSpreader]

Quote

Microsoft says 60 percent of people who played Human Fall Flat, a puzzle game, had not played that type of game before. 40 percent of that 60 percent then went on to purchase a puzzle game in the Microsoft Store.

 

So do we care about AAA or not MSFT?

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

In case you were wondering, today's testimony confirmed that the Indiana Jones title from Machine Games will be a "Microsoft ecosystem" exclusive.

 

But you really, really shouldn't have been wondering about that at all.

 

Seriously. 

[SuperSpreader]

Just now, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

In case you were wondering, today's testimony confirmed that the Indiana Jones title from Machine Games will be a "Microsoft ecosystem" exclusive.

 

But you really, really shouldn't have been wondering about that at all.

 

Seriously. 

 

Oh no not Indiana Jones 

[Xbob42]

I don't get it. If Jim Ryan's on record going "lol this doesn't matter," Nintendo never would've given a shit anyway because they don't get most real big third-party titles anyway, and MS already puts their stuff on PC, then who is this for? This country doesn't even pretend to give a shit about consumers so spare me that lie!

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Recap of the pre-lunch break testimony from Tom Warren:

 

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Time for another recap. We’re on a 45-minute break so hearing participants can finish their quests and dungeons... I mean lunch. Let’s recap what we’ve heard from Bethesda’s Pete Hines and Xbox’s Sarah Bond.

 

Hines started off by self dunking on Redfall, admitting there “might be some differences of opinion” on whether it meets the triple-A standard. It wasn’t an intentional diss of Redfall, but given how disappointing the game was it might as well have been.

 

The FTC’s counsel then led Hines down the garden path towards the pit where Starfield on PS5 is buried. Hines was reminded of his apologies to PS5 players who won’t be able to play Starfield on their consoles. “I don’t like it when our players are upset over something we do,” said Hines. The FTC argues game exclusivity is an anti-competitive move, but Hines made the opposite case that it allows developers to streamline a game. “We would not be putting this game out in nine weeks if we were supporting an entire additional platform, in my opinion.”

 

Questioning then moved on to other Bethesda exclusive games and Hines revealed the upcoming Indiana Jones game is exclusive to Xbox and PC. The game was originally announced in 2021, just months before Microsoft finalized its $7.5 billion deal to acquire Bethesda. There was a contract in place with Disney to ship Indiana Jones on multiple consoles, but the game was made Xbox exclusive after Microsoft’s acquisition. The FTC argues that this behavior could carry across to Activision Blizzard games if Microsoft was to close its $68.7 billion proposed acquisition.

 

Sarah Bond, head of Xbox creator experience, was next to testify. There was a fun exchange around Diablo. Bond explained the franchise to Judge Corley and noted it’s “literally my father’s favorite game.”

 

Judge Corley then asked Bond about Xbox Game Pass and we got some details about how the program started and how it can generate interest in subscribers buying up games they haven’t played before.

 

Bond also touched briefly on Xbox Cloud Gaming. The FTC argues cloud gaming is a separate market, but Bond claims it’s just a feature right now. Honest.

 

“We believe there is going to be 2 billion gamers in the world, and our goal is to reach every one of them,” was the message from Kareem Choudhry, head of cloud gaming at Microsoft, when the company first stared talking about xCloud in 2018.

 

[SuperSpreader]

Ask MSFT what they would do to curtail Nazism in Call of Duty multiplayer 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Quote

 

Activision forced Microsoft into a new Call of Duty revenue deal. Sarah Bond is detailing how Microsoft had to agree to a new revenue share deal with Activision to get Call of Duty on the Xbox Series S / X consoles. Activision refused to agree to prepare its Xbox dev kit work and hinted that it had a different revenue share with PlayStation.

 

Activision Bobby Kotick wanted Microsoft to agree to a new revenue share deal before work begun on Call of Duty for Xbox Series S / X. “It was clear that Call of Duty would be on PS5 and that would not have been good if it was not also on Xbox if it was launching at the same time,” says Bond.

 

Activision also asked Microsoft if it wanted to bid on marketing deals for Call of Duty, but it declined. That ultimately meant Microsoft couldn’t show Call of Duty in its own Xbox showcase.

 

 

[Firewithin]

so seems like the FTC basically got rolled today

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

2 minutes ago, Firewithin said:

so seems like the FTC basically got rolled today

 

Ehhhhh...I wouldn't say that at all.

 

Nothing in today's testimony was substantive one way or the other.

[Xbob42]

7 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

Ehhhhh...I wouldn't say that at all.

 

Nothing in today's testimony was substantive one way or the other.

Which is generally bad for the federal body trying to make its case and block a deal, I would think?

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

31 minutes ago, Xbob42 said:

Which is generally bad for the federal body trying to make its case and block a deal, I would think?

 

No idea.

[Brian]

It didn’t seem like the FTC found any major footing but neither did Microsoft. It felt like a stalemate which probably benefits Microsoft.