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[Bernoulli]

As Reuters reports, lawyers representing the FTC and Microsoft appeared before a three-judge panel at the Ninth Circuit US Court of Appeals yesterday.

The FTC argued that district judge Jacqueline Scott Corley, who denied the government body's appeal for a preliminary injunction in July, held the FTC to too high a standard.

Imad Abyad, an attorney representing the FTC, argued that the government body only had to show the potential for Microsoft to withhold games from other platforms rather than to make a case that the deal was anticompetitive.

Abyad said Microsoft had done this in the past after acquiring Zenimax in 2020, making some of its titles exclusive to Microsoft.

"I fail to understand how giving somebody a monopoly of something would be pro-competitive," he argued, as reported by CNN."It may be a benefit to some class of consumers, but that is very different than saying it is pro-competitive."

FTC appeals to block already-completed Microsoft-Activision deal

The Federal Trade Commission has made its appeal to block Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard – despite the …

www.gamesindustry.biz

 

[ckaneo]

FTC should have made Microsoft make a deal to make the games non exclusive then

 

[Deft Beck]

This is never going to end, huh?

 

[Bernoulli]

This is never going to end, huh?

It's over but the FTC is in denial

 

[Kilau]

 

[GHG]

"I fail to understand how giving somebody a monopoly of something would be pro-competitive," he argued, as reported by CNN."It may be a benefit to some class of consumers, but that is very different than saying it is pro-competitive."

And which "class" of consumer might that be?

 

[DaleinCalgary]

Maybe Microsoft would like to have it succeed now that its realized the billions they spent on huge acquisitions have only created meh.

 

[Topher]

 

[Godot25]

Good luck to them.
I saw transcript of their arguments and based on that they have literally 0% chance to be successful.

 

[K' Dash]

And which "class" of consumer might that be?

The green rats, of course.

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

The gamers lawsuit stands with you, FTC

 

[TheDreadLord]

They’re still on this “monopoly” thing?

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

 

[GHG]

The green rats, of course.

Scourge of the earth.

They must be banished.

 

[RoboFu]

MS just has to show sales of starfield and forza against Spider-Man 2.

FTC has no idea what’s going on. They just didn’t get enough or any payout probably and are mad about it.

 

[Tangerine]

Apt and festive!

 

[JohnnyFootball]

I am so past giving a fuck about this. Microsoft, just allow me to move my Battle.net games over to Steam or the Windows store and give them Xbox achievements.

That's one easy thing you can do and shouldn't be able to fuck up.

 

[crackajack]

The only argument why that deal should go through is to protect American companies from foreign takeovers. So pretty much the opposite what especially american capitalists with their free market idea preach.
Any multimillion company buying other equal or even sometimes bigger companies should practically never be allowed for antitrust reasons, which is to my understanding what the FTC tries to do and judges and law seem to not see that problem at all in pretty much each and every case. Hence Disney, google, oil, banks etc easily become giants once they have the critical mass to aim for monopoly.
Grow yourself and don't just suck up the competition was the point of antitrust stuff. So Sony, MS, Tencent, Embracer, EA, Ubi... no one of the bigger ones should imho be allowed to just buy their competition, not even little fishes, some small studios.

But whatever, like with Disney and netflix the videogame industry is heading not in a great direction and allowing those mergers maybe just put the pedal to the metal and it's maybe inevitable.

 

[AJUMP23]

FTC.....will keep taking the L.

 

[Jigsaah]

It's over and so far Microsoft hasn't had a chance to prove whether this was a good deal or not. I at least wanna see what happens with Gamepass next year.

Preferred that it didn't happen, but shit...we're in it now...as a consumer, I just want whatever benefits it will allow me and for Microsoft to really just focus on improving their offering from here on out, sans subsequent acquisitions.

 

[64bitmodels]

like bro just stop. go stop another merger. you failed with activision. its over

 

[ReBurn]

Keep spending those tax dollars, Lina. You'll do it for sure this time.

 

[twilo99]

Good luck to them.
I saw transcript of their arguments and based on that they have literally 0% chance to be successful.

There was never a real argument anyway

 

[adamsapple]

My tax dollars being used to their best

 

[Thirty7ven]

Obviously people don’t care but the judge made a mockery of the standard the FTC’s argument was beholden to and now that MS go their way even if the FTC had the perfect argument and case some judge would consider breaking of ABK from MS irresponsible to the employees.

It was rigged and it is rigged.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

 

[Godot25]

There was never a real argument anyway

Yes. But even with existing arguments they could have chosen better ones.
Not "Xbox is trying to foreclose Sony by not releasing PS5 version of Minecraft" when even Series X/S version of Minecraft does not exist.

 

[FunkMiller]

It's fine. All the other economic problems have been solved, so they might as well spend money on this.

 

[Punished Miku]

Hopefully the FTC throws Khan a party with a cake and PS1 themed fountain pen. Let her rest.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

The meltdown if they block the deal afterall would be fun, though.

 

[hyperbertha]

Good luck to them.
I saw transcript of their arguments and based on that they have literally 0% chance to be successful.

Ok neogaf lawyer

 

[Eotheod]

Just let me wiiiiiin court of law! You are a big fat meanie, you stink and I hate you! Mum doesn't even love you anyway, she prefers politician dick swinging because that's true justice!

 

[Godot25]

Ok neogaf lawyer

I don't think you need to be lawyer to know that every FTC argument was already dealt with (COD contract for 10 years, cloud deals) and their other arguments have literally 0 sense (non-existing PS5 Minecraft version)

 

[poppabk]

Obviously people don’t care but the judge made a mockery of the standard the FTC’s argument was beholden to and now that MS go their way even if the FTC had the perfect argument and case some judge would consider breaking of ABK from MS irresponsible to the employees.

It was rigged and it is rigged.

A mockery? Wasn't it just one word and the interpretation of what that meant?

 

[CoreyFlawless]

And which "class" of consumer might that be?

There it is. Xbox is a higher class. Or poorer class. Who knows. I thought this shit was done done.

 

[//DEVIL//]

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

This is what your tax dollars are paying for USGaf

 

[ReBurn]

Obviously people don’t care but the judge made a mockery of the standard the FTC’s argument was beholden to and now that MS go their way even if the FTC had the perfect argument and case some judge would consider breaking of ABK from MS irresponsible to the employees.

It was rigged and it is rigged.

The FTC made a poor showing in front of Corley. They were unprepared and they were shredded for it. The system worked the way it was supposed to. The FTC's biggest problem, and the reason they're losing so many cases, is believing that they set the standards for mergers and acquisitions. But they don't and they never have.

The FTC got shot down for trying to rig the process in their favor and the judge wasn't buying it.

 

[Fake]

'Class of consumers'

We did it guys. No more gamers, we are class of consumers.

 

[K' Dash]

This is what your tax dollars are paying for USGaf

Everyone knows that nobody here pays their taxes.

 

[ShadyAcshuns]

Hey Imad, u mad.

 

[kruis]

'Class of consumers'

We did it guys. No more gamers, we are class of consumers.

Do names matter? We're all part of the Xbox family anyway.

 

[Fake]

Do names matter?

Well, depends. For example, when Kotaku write an article about how us 'Gamers' are toxic, they should refer to us using the correct pronouns 'Class of consumers' first or else we can call them bigots.

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Do names matter? We're all part of the Xbox family anyway.

Incredibly important to distinguish between the lower class and upper class

 

[Shake Your Rump]

The deal is obviously anti-competitive, this is why Microsoft is so desperate to do it.

The problem is that the courts only seem to look at consumer prices for determining “competitiveness”. This overlooks all the other harmful effects on the industry.

 

[Jaguar Victory]

Let it go, Jesus...

 

[Robb]

 

[Ronin_7]

This is never going to end, huh?

Americans are paying FTC, so yeah it'll never end because the money is infinite.

 

[ResilientBanana]

They should do the same with Sony.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Anyone know how to get a job at the FTC?

Looks like job security for life. Get destroyed at every major court case, but somehow keep employed trying to reopen cases over and over again.