FTC grabs controller as Microsoft jacks up Game Pass price by 81% Microsoft plans to raise the price of its Game Pass subscriptions significantly – and one US watchdog isn't amused. Earlier this month, the Windows giant announced it would be making some modifications to Game Pass, which is essentially Netflix for video games and allows users to pay monthly to get access to hundreds of games …
Ooh! A downvoter! Who will now of course offer a thoughtful and reasoned explanation of why I am wrong, and megamergers are a good thing.
Or will possibly admit that they struggle with the concept of "sarcasm", and therefore probably shouldn't be reading El Reg anyway.
Over to you, downvoter!
"Honestly, who could have seen this coming? If only someone had said something or warned us."
To be fair, the US and EU consumer watchdogs both investigated and got reassurances. The UK watchdog also investigated and also warned of similar issues, taking even longer to scrutinises the merger as well as the supposed reassurances from MS and were accused of dragging their heels and being "hold-outs" while they did so. But pressure from governments (probably after being expensively lobbied) caused them all to cave in in the end. I suspect a lot of people in the various regulators are saying "I told you so" to their superiors and elected govt representatives now.
The US regulators didn't "cave in", they tried to block it repeatedly and a judge wouldn't let them block it indefinitely. That's why they're still appealing it. The EU agreed to the merger after getting some promises from Microsoft, promises that haven't yet been broken, but the US and UK regulators hung on for longer. While the UK eventually agreed to the merger, the US's regulator has never approved it and is still trying to retroactively disassemble the two.
@John Brown (no body) "To be fair, the US and EU consumer watchdogs both investigated and got reassurances. The UK watchdog also investigated and also warned of similar issues, taking even longer to scrutinises the merger as well as the supposed reassurances from MS and were accused of dragging their heels and being "hold-outs" while they did so. But pressure from governments (probably after being expensively lobbied) caused them all to cave in in the end."
That's true for the EU consumer watchdog. The CMA (UK) blocked the merger, their major reason was it would harm competition in cloud gaming a small part of the games market today but expected to be a large part in the future. MS shouted derogatory comments in the press and then launched an appeal with a restructured merger deal* and that is what the CMA eventually approved not some "supposed reassurances from MS".
That's really not true for the FTC (US) they have only got as far as completing their investigation stage. They have not completed the administrative stage where their complaint goes before their Administrative Law Judges to rule on the merger (block or approve). So even to this day the FTC has not formally decided to bar the merger or approve the merger.
The FTC pushed back the starting data of their administrative case to after the completion data of the merger deal. Then got an restraining order to prevent Microsoft from completing the deal because they had not completed their proceedings. Even though the restraining order ran out and the FTC failed to get an injunction, Microsoft and Activision did not complete the merger, they agreed a new completion date sometime in October allowing plenty of time for the FTC's administrative case to finish.
So why when Microsoft and Activision signed the merger agreement on October 18th had the FTC's administrative case not finished, "The Commission withdrew the matter from adjudication in July 2023, and returned it to adjudication on September 26, 2023.".
So to be fair the FTC never got reassurances because they were too busy playing politics. The reason the merger was not blocked in the US, the FTC did not do their job. They still have not completed their administrative proceedings to decide whether to formally bar the merger.
* https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-microsoft-activision-deal-addresses-previous-cma-concerns-in-cloud-gaming and more detail https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/microsoft-slash-activision-blizzard-ex-cloud-streaming-rights-merger-inquiry
Treat product as a throwaway consumable, what else did you expect?
One off purchases aren’t affected by inflation. A subscription on the other hand, is. In perpetuity.
What is it with acti-blizzard games these days that’s so damn popular anyway? CoD has been terrible past CoD2; WoW long since exhausted; and indeed the most popular play mode for it is probably Classic”. Diablo 4 was entertaining for at most a few hours, and an interminable grind thereafter.
Don’t buy AAA. Anyone that uses it to describe their product is actively marking it as insipid.
Yep, I agree, the dependency is very real and not likely to be detectable from the box blurb.
AAA being anywhere near the description is usually an instant nope. There are indie devs producing much more original and interesting material, and frankly they need the income a whole lot more.
Acti-blizz, if we, the consumer, vote accordingly could make it MS biggest folly.
Forgive my ignorance, but is it so important to have the game on first day? I mean, from my experience, it will probably be full of bugs/problems/whatever and will take some time to become really finished, at least that was the case with all the games I used to play... So why not just wait a day, and get it on day 2? It will still have bugs, but you will pay less for them...
This is from one who's running latest Tumbleweed&Rawhide with absolutely bleeding edge rc kernel :)
And of course the shills like Thurrott, thought the merger a great no-brainer idea and pooh-poohed the FTC and the UK CMA when they challenged it.
And M$FT STILL haven't issued any/many Activision Blizzard games yet on Game Pass either - months later. Just cry in your beverage, matey. A lot of people "told you so",
.
This post has been deleted by its author
They aren't doing anything literally every paid service isn't doing. Netflix, Hulu, Amazon. All price increases with less options. Why all the outrage with MS? Poors squabbling and crying over a couple dollars like it's going to change anything. Costs go up on everything. Stop acting like it's news evertime it happens.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
