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[Bungie]

Do you believe MS/Xbox is bad for the industry?

Do you believe in love after love?

 

[gothmog]

Do you believe in love after love?

What is love?

 

[HoofHearted]

What is love?

Love Hurts

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Do you believe in love after love?

fortunately i cannot experience love.

 

[The Pleasure]

Some of you are worried Sony can no longer dominate.

MS staying in the console space will be a big win for BC, forwards compatibility, and competition.

I’ll be interested to see what exclusive CoD skins and modes will do for Xbox now that Sony won’t have that anymore.

This post is bigger bullshit then linux and THE POWER OF COMMUNITY. Microsoft stole that too.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Some of you are worried Sony can no longer dominate.

And what is worse is that they try to hide it by saying its about the industry.

MS staying in the console space will be a big win for BC, forward compatibility, and competition.

I’ll be interested to see what exclusive CoD skins and modes will do for Xbox now that Sony won’t have that anymore.

 

[kvltus lvlzvs]

What is love?

Baby don't hurt me

 

[FlyyGOD]

What is love?

I wanna know what love is. I want you to show me.

 

[Dis]

What is love?

Baby dont hurt me, dont hurt me
No mo

 

[Corndog]

Did you know that the main reason valve pushed for Linux OS was the fear of ms locking them out?

And have they been locked out?
Edit: I’m glad that this will soon be over one way or another.

 

[DeltaPolarBear]

Do you believe MS/Xbox is bad for the industry?

Wrong question. Do you believe MS is interested in gaming?

Because MS so for does not. And nothing harms an industry more than having the one controlling it not giving a damn. MS has not demonstrated that they actually care about making and selling games to people. Thus by that metric they are worse than bad for the industry; they don't care about the industry at all. You might as well have a Vegetarian buying out ownership of KFC.

MS has money, they could have become great at making and selling games. But it just was never on the cards for them, thus they are now last place in gaming by their own efforts. And the only reason someone better hadn't replaced them is because Xbox is being propped up by external money and not having to actually make products people want.

 

[poppabk]

Sony doesn't win. It's gamers. Even Xbox gamers are going to win because some bozo like Phil Spencer won't be in charge of any Activision games and ruining them. They just spent a week telling us all how absolutely awful they are at making games. Phil doesn't even believe in making great games.

As opposed to Bobby who hired investigators to find dirt on the creators of CoD so he could fire them and therfore not have to pay them bonuses? The guy who turned Activision from a third party creator of multiple titles to basically a CoD factory?

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Wrong question. Do you believe MS is interested in gaming?

I mean...the way some people write about how bad this acquisition is for the industry is as if Microsoft is the Antichrist incarnate

Because MS so for does not. And nothing harms an industry more than having the one controlling it not giving a damn. MS has not demonstrated that they actually care about making and selling games to people. Thus by that metric they are worse than bad for the industry; they don't care about the industry at all. You might as well have a Vegetarian buying out ownership of KFC.

MS has money, they could have become great at making and selling games. But it just was never on the cards for them, thus they are now last place in gaming by their own efforts. And the only reason someone better hadn't replaced them is because Xbox is being propped up by external money and not having to actually make products people want.

see what i am saying?

people have this strong confirmation bias. but consolidation is just a natural process of any industry. What MS is doing is totally normal and predictable.

The big difference is that Xbox is not coming from a place of power just like disney for example. in other words: "Xbox has shown incompetence 2/3 of its time in this industry.

and people conveniently ignore that this industry is already fucked up....disrtuption is needed.

the irony of this situation is that if someone actually cared about the industry, should root for this acquisition to be approved.

 

[adamsapple]

What is love?

Baby don't hurt me.

 

[Topher]

Baby don't hurt me.

No more

 

[adamsapple]

No more

 

[Topher]

I'll need to save that one.

 

[gothmog]

I mean...the way some people write about how bad this acquisition is for the industry is as if Microsoft is the Antichrist incarnate


see what i am saying?

people have this strong confirmation bias. but consolidation is just a natural process of any industry. What MS is doing is totally normal and predictable.

The big difference is that Xbox is not coming from a place of power just like disney for example. in other words: "Xbox has shown incompetence 2/3 of its time in this industry.

and people conveniently ignore that this industry is already fucked up....disrtuption is needed.

the irony of this situation is that if someone actually cared about the industry, should root for this acquisition to be approved.

Disruption was already happening via the indie scene. This direction makes gaming lazy and predatory at best.

 

[poppabk]

I mean...the way some people write about how bad this acquisition is for the industry is as if Microsoft is the Antichrist incarnate


see what i am saying?

people have this strong confirmation bias. but consolidation is just a natural process of any industry. What MS is doing is totally normal and predictable.

The big difference is that Xbox is not coming from a place of power just like disney for example. in other words: "Xbox has shown incompetence 2/3 of its time in this industry.

and people conveniently ignore that this industry is already fucked up....disrtuption is needed.

the irony of this situation is that if someone actually cared about the industry, should root for this acquisition to be approved.

Wrong thread

 

[TrueGrime]

I mean...the way some people write about how bad this acquisition is for the industry is as if Microsoft is the Antichrist incarnate


see what i am saying?

people have this strong confirmation bias. but consolidation is just a natural process of any industry. What MS is doing is totally normal and predictable.

The big difference is that Xbox is not coming from a place of power just like disney for example. in other words: "Xbox has shown incompetence 2/3 of its time in this industry.

and people conveniently ignore that this industry is already fucked up....disrtuption is needed.

the irony of this situation is that if someone actually cared about the industry, should root for this acquisition to be approved.

It's really no use arguing with people that think their favorite plastic box is god's gift and that company is doing it the right way when the competition is doing it wrong is ruining the industry. Pretty sure the industry is supposed to have been ruined by now seeing as it's been parroted nearly a decade ago.

 

[CRAIG667]

What is love?

Baby don't hurt me

 

[gow3isben]

What is love?

Baby don’t Hearn me

 

[Vognerful]

There is no direct part ...as usual in the normal bullshit beating around the bushes pr speak/response... but when he said he wanted to do it (exclusivity) but was not been able to find a way "around" .. i think we all no what this "around" means .. it can only mean a contract

But he didnt aay the word contract so you are free to choose whatever explanation suits you

Please go easy on the projection lol, like I said and like multiple websites have reported, the Minecraft Dungeon thing is known, but they ultimately didn't end up doing it anyway. What I'm looking for is the direct quote that other posters have previously alluded to where they imply that he talked about trying to bypass / go around anything.

Phil is supposedly the authority in what stays exclusive and he seemingly allowed MC: Dungeons to not be exclusive, it seems.

I mean, the FTC could have been able to request to see what the contract was between Mojan and Microsoft about the IP. Why couldn't they bring it to light?

But...........................

Let's assume that indeed there is a contract that enforces all Minecraft related content to release as multiplatform, couldn't Microsoft just break it after all these years? how much would it cost them?

 

[splattered]

This forum has lost its goddamn mind this week ... Someone remember to hit the reboot button before Monday pretty please

 

[Jigsaah]

So I am waiting for the latest episoide of Sacred Symbols and Defining Duke to hear their takes on the hearing's final arguments, but depending on the Judge, the decision may come before the episodes are out.

I ended up listening to Rand al Thor's and Jez Gordon's podcast today and there was an interesting take Jez had about COD exclusivity on Playstation. So from what I understand, Jim Ryan wants all the Bethesda and Activision games. What if he leverages the power of the PS5 Platform to essentially say that he won't let Microsoft put COD on PS5 unless he also gets Bethesda and Activision. It sounded far fetched when I first heard this take, but it does put Microsoft in an odd spot. Given they are being honest about it not making financial sense to make COD exclusive...which I tend to believe...wouldn't they be pressured to at least consider this?

If this take has been said before I haven't heard it til today, so apologies if this has been discussed already.

 

[Bernardougf]

I mean, the FTC could have been able to request to see what the contract was between Mojan and Microsoft about the IP. Why couldn't they bring it to light?

But...........................

Let's assume that indeed there is a contract that enforces all Minecraft related content to release as multiplatform, couldn't Microsoft just break it after all these years? how much would it cost them?

Mojang ? ... probably would cost the directors/devs regaining control of the IP and independence and a big chunk of money .. but who knows.. is all very speculative

Yes the FTC could could ask but to what point ? They only needed to show one more time the "exclusive" mind set that phil spencer has behind doors , outside of his PR machine. The why is not important really, in this case.

 

[Bernardougf]

So I am waiting for the latest episoide of Sacred Symbols and Defining Duke to hear their takes on the hearing's final arguments, but depending on the Judge, the decision may come before the episodes are out.

I ended up listening to Rand al Thor's and Jez Gordon's podcast today and there was an interesting take Jez had about COD exclusivity on Playstation. So from what I understand, Jim Ryan wants all the Bethesda and Activision games. What if he leverages the power of the PS5 Platform to essentially say that he won't let Microsoft put COD on PS5 unless he also gets Bethesda and Activision. It sounded far fetched when I first heard this take, but it does put Microsoft in an odd spot. Given they are being honest about it not making financial sense to make COD exclusive...which I tend to believe...wouldn't they be pressured to at least consider this?

If this take has been said before I haven't heard it til today, so apologies if this has been discussed already.

After this trial putting honest and microsoft in the same sentence pertaining studios and ip acquisitions is veeeery kind of you ... and this "economic sense" thing ... the economic sense thing would have been shut down xbox years ago ... is baffling that after Phil literally say, to regulators, that they have no incentives to take bethesda games from plasytation and two days later slashs playstation versions and make everything until further notice exclusive, and you have emails proving that this was always the intention.... and still People belive that MS wants to buy COD to make it multiplat... for "Financials reasons" ...and at the same time want to, by their own emails, "outspend" sony out of business

And the narrative now is that sony wont allow it ?

Shit I feel like Im in the twilight zone

MS wants to spend sony out, so they will buy publishers, to put extremely popular games on playstation to kill playstation .. and sony smelling this move wont allow this extremely popular high generating revenue in their system. Fucking genius move..

 

[DeepEnigma]

This forum has lost its goddamn mind this week ... Someone remember to hit the reboot button before Monday pretty please

 

[ToadMan]

So I am waiting for the latest episoide of Sacred Symbols and Defining Duke to hear their takes on the hearing's final arguments, but depending on the Judge, the decision may come before the episodes are out.

I ended up listening to Rand al Thor's and Jez Gordon's podcast today and there was an interesting take Jez had about COD exclusivity on Playstation. So from what I understand, Jim Ryan wants all the Bethesda and Activision games. What if he leverages the power of the PS5 Platform to essentially say that he won't let Microsoft put COD on PS5 unless he also gets Bethesda and Activision. It sounded far fetched when I first heard this take, but it does put Microsoft in an odd spot. Given they are being honest about it not making financial sense to make COD exclusive...which I tend to believe...wouldn't they be pressured to at least consider this?

If this take has been said before I haven't heard it til today, so apologies if this has been discussed already.

This was discussed a bit… to quote myself

If the CMA is accurate, there is “no plausible scenario” MS take COD from PS without major losses.

Which begs the question, if they can fatally wound MS as a whole by rendering this acquisition a massive loss, why wouldn’t Sony simply cancel COD on PS the day the acquisition is approved, and see MS disappear from gaming?

Yeah, the CMA analysis doesn’t quite add up… They seem to have fallen for the idea that platforms sell content, rather than content selling platforms.

But in practice it would (almost certainly) be ruinous for Sony, and unlike MS they can’t absorb these losses spending their competitors out of business.

 

[Heisenberg007]

Denying which part ? We all know what he said about Minecraft dungeons, I'm asking if there's anything showing that he said trying to get out of the contract part.

Share it if you've got it.

I posted it here while we were listening to the hearing live.

Oh shit. This is a lot of dirt.

Phil regrets Minecraft multiplatform's existence (because of the contract). "I need us to find ways [to make Minecraft exclusive]". Conversation between PHil Spencer / Matt Booty / and one other unknow person.

The one other unknown person was later confirmed to be Xbox CMO. He said, "We need to make this [Minecraft Dungeons] exclusive." Phil replies, "I agree."

 

[Kiraly]

Copied from another forum but still devastating nonetheless. The peak behind the curtain at Microsoft will reverberate for years. Enjoy this summary.

• An email written by Matt Booty illustrates their desire to 'Spend Sony out of gaming', note that this was followed by several 3rd party partners of Sony being acquired that year and one of the biggest publishers in the industry being acquired the next year: Zenimax and so on to Activision now.
• The email also exposed several of Phil Spencers lies about Amazon and Google being the main competition for Microsoft going forward.
• A list of about 100 developers and publishers was also published from court documents, this showed that mobile may have been a consideration BUT it was certainly not the main concern.... with tens of console only developers and publishers being considered for acquisitions, including Sony and Nintendo themselves.
• Out of that list Microsoft had gone further and tried to buy Sega and Square and then obviously continued on to Zenimax.... this shows that there is no specific strategy apart from growth by acquisition, growth by taking games away from direct competitors. Growth by offering less choice...contrary to their PR.
• During the acquisition process Phil Spencer guaranteed gamers that IP's would continue to be published where they had an established audience, however emails between Phil Spencer and Microsofts CFO have revealed that the term 'case by case basis' was used as a smokescreen and Phil Spencer had already decided to make all future games exclusive to Xbox and PC, which are both essentially Microsoft platforms.

From Reddit:

• Phil Spencer wanting to make Minecraft exclusive ("When everyone plays, we all win")
• Sensitive Microsoft emails from 2018 forward discussing large scale acquisitions (showing Spencer's excuse for buying ZeniMax to be fiction)
• Xbox's Matt Bootty floating the idea they can spend Sony "out of bussiness" by taking third-party publishers away from them
• Phil Spencer email confirming all major ZeniMax games moving forward games will be blocked from PlayStation. Telling his colleagues "We just can't [come out] and say that." Squirming in court. Not recalling critical exchanges.
• Spencer's email exchanges with Rim Ryan where he refuses to commit to future Activision titles on PlayStation beyond CoD; Ryan coming to the realization Spencer is not a man of his word
• Xbox misrepresenting the CBB and being exposed
• Being criticized for flip-flopping on Xbox's business prospects, depending on who their talking to (Xbox is doomed. Xbox has never been stronger. Xbox is doomed)

• Phil Spencer empowering his disciples: "If we can get them [hardcore Xbox fans] to love it, they will evangelize"; a reference to Microsoft's old astroturfing manual "Evangelism is War".
• In 2021, Matt Booty wrote there was "no effing way" that Xbox was going to put its original games on competing streaming services. Microsoft switched tracks last minute to placate regulators and appear pro consumer
• Phil Spencer denied a news report about Microsoft seeking to acquire multiple Japanese developers when he knew the report to be accurate.

DEVASTATING

 

[mansoor1980]

Copied from another forum but still devastating nonetheless. The peak behind the curtain at Microsoft will reverberate for years. Enjoy this summary.

• An email written by Matt Booty illustrates their desire to 'Spend Sony out of gaming', note that this was followed by several 3rd party partners of Sony being acquired that year and one of the biggest publishers in the industry being acquired the next year: Zenimax and so on to Activision now.
• The email also exposed several of Phil Spencers lies about Amazon and Google being the main competition for Microsoft going forward.
• A list of about 100 developers and publishers was also published from court documents, this showed that mobile may have been a consideration BUT it was certainly not the main concern.... with tens of console only developers and publishers being considered for acquisitions, including Sony and Nintendo themselves.
• Out of that list Microsoft had gone further and tried to buy Sega and Square and then obviously continued on to Zenimax.... this shows that there is no specific strategy apart from growth by acquisition, growth by taking games away from direct competitors. Growth by offering less choice...contrary to their PR.
• During the acquisition process Phil Spencer guaranteed gamers that IP's would continue to be published where they had an established audience, however emails between Phil Spencer and Microsofts CFO have revealed that the term 'case by case basis' was used as a smokescreen and Phil Spencer had already decided to make all future games exclusive to Xbox and PC, which are both essentially Microsoft platforms.

From Reddit:

• Phil Spencer wanting to make Minecraft exclusive ("When everyone plays, we all win")
• Sensitive Microsoft emails from 2018 forward discussing large scale acquisitions (showing Spencer's excuse for buying ZeniMax to be fiction)
• Xbox's Matt Bootty floating the idea they can spend Sony "out of bussiness" by taking third-party publishers away from them
• Phil Spencer email confirming all major ZeniMax games moving forward games will be blocked from PlayStation. Telling his colleagues "We just can't [come out] and say that." Squirming in court. Not recalling critical exchanges.
• Spencer's email exchanges with Rim Ryan where he refuses to commit to future Activision titles on PlayStation beyond CoD; Ryan coming to the realization Spencer is not a man of his word
• Xbox misrepresenting the CBB and being exposed
• Being criticized for flip-flopping on Xbox's business prospects, depending on who their talking to (Xbox is doomed. Xbox has never been stronger. Xbox is doomed)

• Phil Spencer empowering his disciples: "If we can get them [hardcore Xbox fans] to love it, they will evangelize"; a reference to Microsoft's old astroturfing manual "Evangelism is War".
• In 2021, Matt Booty wrote there was "no effing way" that Xbox was going to put its original games on competing streaming services. Microsoft switched tracks last minute to placate regulators and appear pro consumer
• Phil Spencer denied a news report about Microsoft seeking to acquire multiple Japanese developers when he knew the report to be accurate.

you see this jim ? urgent counter-offense is required

i know he is a peacefull guy but the time has come to strike at the heart of the demon

 

[mrmustard]

DEVASTATING

For sure, the few thousand forum dwellers who know about that will never forget!

 

[Corndog]

Wrong question. Do you believe MS is interested in gaming?

Because MS so for does not. And nothing harms an industry more than having the one controlling it not giving a damn. MS has not demonstrated that they actually care about making and selling games to people. Thus by that metric they are worse than bad for the industry; they don't care about the industry at all. You might as well have a Vegetarian buying out ownership of KFC.

MS has money, they could have become great at making and selling games. But it just was never on the cards for them, thus they are now last place in gaming by their own efforts. And the only reason someone better hadn't replaced them is because Xbox is being propped up by external money and not having to actually make products people want.

That makes no sense. Companies produce goods and services for money. All of them do.
Why would Microsoft be in the games business for the heck of it.

 

[PharaoTutAnchAmun]

Well, that is Microsoft's fault. The regulatory bodies who want to block this acquisition just need to push it past the deadline.

But why did Microsoft wait until the very last day (day #30) to file an appeal to CAT? They should have done it in the first few days and then they may have got the hearing before July 18.

Because MS was convinced that the merger would go trough....

 

[Heisenberg007]

Because MS was convinced that the merger would go trough....

At that point, the CMA had blocked it so they had to file an appeal. They decided and announced in only a couple of hours that MS will be filing an appeal, but didn't do it for 30 days. So baffling.

 

[GHG]

The CNBC segment the tweet is talking about is real.

He did not make it out of thin air.

UK court filing may be positive for Microsoft deal for Activision - report

A close reading of a UK courts denial of a request by the countrys antitrust regulator to delay a hearing on Microsoft Activision deal could be viewed positively for the deal.

seekingalpha.com

GHG keep chilling.

And you keep believing.

 

[Topher]

The CNBC segment the tweet is talking about is real.

He did not make it out of thin air.

UK court filing may be positive for Microsoft deal for Activision - report

A close reading of a UK courts denial of a request by the countrys antitrust regulator to delay a hearing on Microsoft Activision deal could be viewed positively for the deal.

seekingalpha.com

GHG keep chilling.

The Final Order has always been in a draft status.

Microsoft / Activision Blizzard merger inquiry

The CMA investigated the anticipated acquisition by Microsoft Corporation of Activision Blizzard, Inc.

www.gov.uk

 

[adamsapple]

And you keep believing.

Just clearing the air that it isn't something someone on twitter made up.

 

[Pelta88]

Hopefully this deal will be off in July 18
I don't want these dumbfucks to touch any third-party publishers

100%

Do you believe MS/Xbox is bad for the industry?

In theory no, not at all. When Microsoft got into gaming, I thought it was the best thing to happen to the industry. But the Microsoft we know today, the one that would rather destroy Playstation because they have better studio management and deliver better games... That Microsoft, needs to get the fuck up out of the industry.

They don't want to compete. Their stated goal is to purchase everything just to get a PR win. XBOX as it stands isn't sustainable as a business. They've been losing billions year in year out. And what makes the situation even worse is during that time... Their audience has become so adverse to admitting that XB is in truly fucked up state... That the leadership team poke fun at their own audience and refer to XB fans as "Evangelists."

Truly sad state of affairs.

 

[Rubim]

Wrong question. Do you believe MS is interested in gaming?

Because MS so for does not. And nothing harms an industry more than having the one controlling it not giving a damn. MS has not demonstrated that they actually care about making and selling games to people. Thus by that metric they are worse than bad for the industry; they don't care about the industry at all. You might as well have a Vegetarian buying out ownership of KFC.

MS has money, they could have become great at making and selling games. But it just was never on the cards for them, thus they are now last place in gaming by their own efforts. And the only reason someone better hadn't replaced them is because Xbox is being propped up by external money and not having to actually make products people want.

I don't can't still buy that money brings talent on this industry.

Does not matter how much money you're going to give, talentless developer will still develop shit.

 

[MasterCornholio]

Just clearing the air that it isn't something someone on twitter made up.

It reminds me of the rumors that CMA would approve the deal. I guess we have yo wait and see if it happens which I have doubts.

 

[PaintTinJr]

That makes no sense. Companies produce goods and services for money. All of them do.
Why would Microsoft be in the games business for the heck of it.

You'd have to go back 800 pages to read all about the old Ian Saint John information about his Microsoft playbook for DirectX and how Nividia were able to put leading 3D graphics card company 3dfx out of business and buy them for $1 when they got a loan from Microsoft - giving Microsoft the right to buy Nvidia with first refusal that is still active today- to realise that this was always about stopping PlayStation replacing the Windows home PC, and Microsoft's huge demise if it did.

Windows gaming and Windows as the dominant business OS, and OS for Cloud gaming, and by extension making Office the most lucrative productivity suite is worth so much, that the billions Microsoft waste each generation on Xbox to make DirectX the defacto API for PCs games is a rounding error.

This whole merger could have probably gone through if we were back at the time of 3dfx's Glide, SGI/Khronos Group's Opengl as the dominant Windows(and by extension Cloud) 3d graphics APIs, with DirectX in a distant 3rd or 4th place.

Xbox is a short hand derived by Microsoft marketing from the literal Direct X - in a console -Box, and Xbox has always been Windows API vanguard, which this deal would have changed from defence to offence, as we see idsoftware games have all been converted from Opengl/vulkan to DirectX, and similarly for Bethesda AFAIK.

 

[HoofHearted]

The Final Order has always been in a draft status.

Microsoft / Activision Blizzard merger inquiry

The CMA investigated the anticipated acquisition by Microsoft Corporation of Activision Blizzard, Inc.

www.gov.uk

 

[ManaByte]

I'll need to save that one.

 

[kvltus lvlzvs]

You'd have to go back 800 pages to read all about the old Ian Saint John information about his Microsoft playbook for DirectX and how Nividia were able to put leading 3D graphics card company 3dfx out of business and buy them for $1 when they got a loan from Microsoft - giving Microsoft the right to buy Nvidia with first refusal that is still active today- to realise that this was always about stopping PlayStation replacing the Windows home PC, and Microsoft's huge demise if it did.

Windows gaming and Windows as the dominant business OS, and OS for Cloud gaming, and by extension making Office the most lucrative productivity suite is worth so much, that the billions Microsoft waste each generation on Xbox to make DirectX the defacto API for PCs games is a rounding error.

This whole merger could have probably gone through if we were back at the time of 3dfx's Glide, SGI/Khronos Group's Opengl as the dominant Windows(and by extension Cloud) 3d graphics APIs, with DirectX in a distant 3rd or 4th place.

Xbox is a short hand derived by Microsoft marketing from the literal Direct X - in a console -Box, and Xbox has always been Windows API vanguard, which this deal would have changed from defence to offence, as we see idsoftware games have all been converted from Opengl/vulkan to DirectX, and similarly for Bethesda AFAIK.

Wait, THAT is how 3dfx died?!?!

The GPU market would be much different nowadays if they were still around...

 

[Wulfer]

You'd have to go back 800 pages to read all about the old Ian Saint John information about his Microsoft playbook for DirectX and how Nividia were able to put leading 3D graphics card company 3dfx out of business and buy them for $1 when they got a loan from Microsoft - giving Microsoft the right to buy Nvidia with first refusal that is still active today- to realise that this was always about stopping PlayStation replacing the Windows home PC, and Microsoft's huge demise if it did.

Windows gaming and Windows as the dominant business OS, and OS for Cloud gaming, and by extension making Office the most lucrative productivity suite is worth so much, that the billions Microsoft waste each generation on Xbox to make DirectX the defacto API for PCs games is a rounding error.

This whole merger could have probably gone through if we were back at the time of 3dfx's Glide, SGI/Khronos Group's Opengl as the dominant Windows(and by extension Cloud) 3d graphics APIs, with DirectX in a distant 3rd or 4th place.

Xbox is a short hand derived by Microsoft marketing from the literal Direct X - in a console -Box, and Xbox has always been Windows API vanguard, which this deal would have changed from defence to offence, as we see idsoftware games have all been converted from Opengl/vulkan to DirectX, and similarly for Bethesda AFAIK.

I'm pretty sure Sega had a hand in 3DFX's demise! I had a buddy who was pissed when the Sega/3DFX deal was cancelled. He had a lot of stock in 3DFX at the time. Microsoft may have had a hand in it but, Sega finished it. Big moves like MS/ABK sometimes fail. However, Disney/Fox was a success so, who knows? Sega/3DFX just happened to be one that failed!

 

[b6a6es]

Say what you will, but I genuinely miss Ballmer, easily best MS CEO

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Say what you will, but I genuinely miss Ballmer, easily best MS CEO

And his leg rubs

 

[PaintTinJr]

I'm pretty sure Sega had a hand in 3DFX's demise! I had a buddy who was pissed when the Sega/3DFX deal was cancelled. He had a lot of stock in 3DFX at the time. Microsoft may have had a hand in it but, Sega finished it. Big moves like MS/ABK sometimes fail. However, Disney/Fox was a success so, who knows? Sega/3DFX just happened to be one that failed!

It wasn't how it happened, Sega was a nothing issue, Nvidia litigating would have been normal, they all did it over patients leading to partnerships that resulted in shared tech and wider adoption, what was different was they litigated to foreclose, backed by a Microsoft loan from the original Xbox deal. Back then it was like the wild west, so anti-competitive lawsuits could be brought and put companies out of business when they refused to license patent technology at fair market terms.

Since then the patents situation changed massively because companies like Apple could have been kept out of the phone market back in the day had Sony, Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson and Texas Instruments, etc - that owned all the telecoms/phone patents - refused to license the technology at fair market rate.