SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
For months now, Microsoft has sworn up and down that it has no interest in making Call of Duty exclusive to the Xbox if and when its proposed $69 billion Activision acquisition is approved. But as the FTC'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."
[...]
Rather than focusing on what it calls a "strained analogy" to ZeniMax, Microsoft would prefer the court look at Microsoft's purchase of Minecraft-maker Mojang, which has continued to publish the game on a variety of platforms after becoming part of Microsoft. This is a better analogy for Call of Duty, Microsoft writes, because Minecraft was similarly "an existing, multi-player, cross-platform franchise like COD."
[...]
Call of Duty is unlike Minecraft, the FTC argues, in part because Minecraft is available in largely the same form on mobile phones, tablets, and the Switch. "Even if Microsoft took Minecraft off of rival consoles and subscription and cloud gaming services, it would still be available for play on many other devices. The context for Call of Duty is very different."Regardless, the FTC also argues that this manufactured categorization doesn't matter, because Microsoft's exclusivity decision applied to "all future ZeniMax games." While Microsoft said in 2021 that "some" future Bethesda games would be Xbox exclusives, no Bethesda non-exclusives have been announced since then.
Previously:
US Moves to Block Microsoft's Activision Takeover - 20230613
Microsoft and Activision Will Miss Their Contractual Merger Deadline - 20230115
FTC Moves to Block Microsoft's Activision Acquisition - 20221209
The Biggest Deal in Gaming is Under Fire From U.S. Senators - 20220403
Related:
Microsoft Acquires ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Softworks for $7.5 Billion - 20200921
(Score: 5, Touché) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Monday June 26 2023, @08:42AM
Now that's a shocker. Sheesh... And here I was, thinking Microsoft was true to their word. Now my illusions are dashed.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Barenflimski on Monday June 26 2023, @09:57AM (3 children)
It is mind blowing to me that when it comes to anything Microsoft related, that Call of Duty could hold any of this up.
Microsoft tracks everything. Microsoft adds ads to just about everything. Microsoft's 'dark patterns' are ubiquitous.*
All I can come up with in my little brain is, "Microsoft can harvest data down to my location and sell it to people, but the FTC cares about Call of Duty being available to kids on as many platforms as possible?" Lets be clear. This is a game where you will be called the N word within 60 minutes of logging on and playing. In that 60 minutes, you'll likely be berated in 20 other ways that would get any kid suspended from school. Just a couple of days ago, an entire group of adults wouldn't play with me on their team because I was white and they expressed, in very colorful language, how much they hated white people.
I can't stand the corporate ethos of Microsoft OR Activision, but for sake of humanity, the FTC is upset about Call of Duty?
*Dark Patterns - Log onto MSN.com, and they randomly show you a RED notification that insinuates you have mail. It seems to be a randint(6). Windows 11... Install NOW! I've accidentally started the windows 11 update twice. One time, the only way to get around their menus was to reboot before I had to choose. Read an article on MSN.com on your phone, and some randint(8) times, you get a prompt about how you can't read the article on their site, but have to install their app. Clear cookies, click link again its readable.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2023, @11:54AM
Reddit does this. Sometimes when you click to expand a comment thread, you get a warning window saying something about "may contain adult content (language)" and the only choices you're presented are "Take Me Home" and "Download Reddit App." I had this happen to me yesterday.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2023, @12:19PM
Well...the FTC is part of the government, and the government loves its recruiting tools. Gotta have an endless stream of wannabe soldiers for the next war they're going to get us into...
(Score: 2) by GloomMower on Monday June 26 2023, @02:28PM
I mean, this is specifically about Microsoft buying activision, not the other stuff, so of course they are looking at games.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Dale on Monday June 26 2023, @02:21PM (1 child)
On one hand, it is not at all surprising that a studio buys something and thing only does things going forward on their own console. The bit about them super pinky swearing to do something is pointless and irrelevant. They are going to do what happens every time a large company buys up another company. How many awesome studios have we seen die via acquisitions over the years? I still miss Sierra, Bullfrog, Westwood, not to mention the slightly more modern ones. The biggest thing that has surprised me is how little an impact it has had overall on the market. Sure, individual franchises die because of it and we miss out on what could have been. Command and Conquer went to shit after EA took them over.
The real talent that drives the industry forward though splits off and form new companies and we keep on going. I know that isn't a popular opinion, but we will survive if this merger goes through just fine. It is still bad for everyone overall and I hope it doesn't happen, but it isn't going to destroy the foundations of the industry.
(Score: 2) by boltronics on Tuesday June 27 2023, @02:02PM
Except these days, games take many years and many millions of dollars to compete at the level of COD. Splitting off and competing is no longer so easy.
In the old C&C days we had Dark Reign, Total Annihilation, StarCraft and a ton of others. These days nobody's making them. EA did test the waters a couple of years back with some simple remasters which were great IMO, but even then, probably not enough return on investment. Too hard to do microtransactions for the genre. Grey Goo wasn't a big seller either AFAIK.
Hence, Westwood likely wouldn't have survived anyway. Sierra is a similar story. Look at Telltale, the modern equivalent in many ways. Attempts at bringing Descent back have also all met little success, despite being a mega success back in the day.
And yet, Need For Speed is still selling well all this time. I had the first game on MS DOS back in the day, and beat Unbound on my Xbox just recently, despite being owned by EA. It doesn't hurt that EA bought up other racing game developers like Codemasters, but makes you wonder how much blame can really be attributed to being bought Vs gaming trends.
Another example: Final Fantasy 16. What was a turn based JRPG is now just a fast-paced real-time action game, because Square Enix felt they had to adapt to modern trends to keep the franchise alive.
COD is one of those special franchises like NFS that has proven itself be able to stand the test of time without changing the core gameplay into something unrecognisable.
It's GNU/Linux dammit!
(Score: 2) by boltronics on Tuesday June 27 2023, @09:26AM
Sony had already purchased exclusive rights to Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo. Microsoft then heard that Sony was also in talks to make Starfield exclusive.
From Microsoft's perspective, since they have a smaller piece of the gaming landscape, they would have had to pay more for an exclusivity agreement than Sony since sales would have been less (and that's assuming that MS would be fine with it skipping GamePass). In some cases, it sounds like it got to a point where the potential profit from sales of a game would make the higher price impossible to justify, yet they couldn't let Sony continue with buying up exclusivity agreements and falling further behind, so MS decided to just purchase the entire studio instead. It also works into their plans for selling GamePass subscriptions and being able to drop AAA games on a regular schedule, but there wouldn't have been so much incentive without Sony's actions.
That is why Microsoft is saying that Starfield is not a fair comparison. If they had not purchased the studio, Starfield would have been a Sony exclusive. Microsoft were backed into a corner that time. Hence, Minecraft isn't a perfect analogy, but it's a much closer one.
My gut feeling is that the deal with go through, since to not allow it would primarily be to protect the market leader, which is Sony (since in the FTC's view Nintendo doesn't count, although of course this is just silly).
Personally, I've never liked Microsoft much. Honestly, I used to absolutely hate the company back when Ballmer and Gates were around. I also hated what they did to Nokia. You can see from the finished games list on my site that I avoid using Windows for gaming where reasonably possible, instead opting to play under GNU/Linux. However, with the crazy price of computer hardware until very recently, I have been gaming more and more on console. From a strictly console gaming perspective, Sony does seem the more anti-consumer company at this time. That could not be said when the previous gen launched (less than 10 years ago), where Microsoft was still being as anti-consumer as they could get. I also wouldn't be surprised if the tables turn again in a few years if MS ever becomes top dog again like they were in the early 360 era.
It's GNU/Linux dammit!