July 15th 2023.
It seems that Microsoft has gotten its way in the end. After the news was announced that the FTC has lost its chance to appeal their court case against Microsoft, Activision Blizzard acquisition is likely to go ahead. This has left many people feeling frustrated and angry, as it will cause potential harm to the gaming industry.
It's not hard to see why. Microsoft is one of the biggest and richest companies in the world, with seemingly endless resources to outspend and overpower anyone who stands in their way. This was even made clear in an email from Microsoft executives which was highlighted during the court case. Microsoft have become the bullies of the industry, and it's quite worrying to see how angry they get if anyone so much as says "no".
The real issue here is the FTC. As the reader points out, their arguments were not very well put together. Most of the time, they were caught making baseless assumptions and statistics. It was also clear to see that they had a limited knowledge of the games industry, which gave Microsoft the upper hand.
The argument against the acquisition is quite simple: Microsoft will gain the ability to make Game Pass an irresistible deal for ordinary gamers, while Sony does not have the money to compete with it. It's almost as if a monopoly is being created, as Microsoft will be spending $69 billion on the acquisition.
The FTC did make this argument when it came to cloud gaming, but it was too vague and theoretical to make an impact on the judge. There were several other missed opportunities, such as the fact that Microsoft said they bought Bethesda for the exclusives, yet they claim that they are opening up Activision Blizzard games to more people.
It's hard to not to laugh at the far-fetched claims that 150 million extra players for Call Of Duty will suddenly rush out and buy the game on Switch. It's also absurd that Microsoft bought Bethesda and made all their games exclusive, yet they're being seen as some kind of charitable force.
It's really not looking good for the industry. Microsoft now makes up a large portion of the Western video games market, and we've already seen how bad they are at managing their studios. There's a good chance that Activision Blizzard will suffer greatly from this acquisition, and the employees have real reason to be worried.
It's a shame that Sony don't have the resources to compete with Microsoft, as it could have prevented this from happening. But unfortunately, this is the reality we're in now and it has a real chance of creating a monopoly that will harm the industry and gamers everywhere.
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