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FTC: Xbox-exclusive Starfield is “powerful evidence” against Activision deal (arstechnica.com)

submitted 1 year ago by JRepin@lemmy.ml to c/gaming@lemmy.ml

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The Federal Trade Commission's request for an injunction stopping that acquisition heads toward opening arguments this week, the federal regulator cites one piece of what it calls "powerful evidence" that it can't trust Microsoft's assurances. In short, as the FTC puts it, "Microsoft's actions following its 2021 acquisition of ZeniMax speak louder than Defendants' words."

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[–] thoro@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'm very happy that these agencies are blocking this acquisition. I had no faith they would.

There's nothing good about the fourth largest video game publisher (third for first parties) acquiring the sixth largest (third for third parties). We need more variety, not more consolidation.

[–] dan_the_accountant@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Interesting. I'm against large companies buying up all these developers, but it seems strange that this is where they're trying to draw the line.

[–] silent_clash@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't understand how anybody could see this market consolidation as a positive! Yes, in the short term ABK games will be added to Game Pass, but once Game Pass is the only "game" in town, the price gouging monopolistic behavior will follow.

[–] thoro@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And worse is that the industry could react with further consolidation if this went through.

After Microsoft bought Bethesda, Sony reacted by buying a series of studios for itself. Yeah those studios had a historically close relationship with Sony already (besides Bungie, the most recent), but now they're officially tied together.

I'm not sure if Sony has the FU Microsoft money to buy another top ten publisher, but imagine if they could and bought out Ubisoft/EA/Square Enix and now those games would never come on Xbox again?

It's already hard enough for gamers to play anything/everything due to exclusivity and needing to buy multiple systems. If I didn't have a PC, I would be extremely annoyed at being unable to play Starfield when I played Oblivion, Fallout 3, New Vegas, Skyrim, etc on PlayStation.