[vidya] Something to consider about the FTC going after Microsoft for the ActiBlizz merger:

The act of doing this basically sinks the deal.

The last time Microsoft had something like this happen to them? It took YEARS to settle it.

Three, I believe.

That’s a MINIMUM.

This will take years. Years and years and years.

Stock prices and the worth of things will change.

Yeah like the deal isn't explicitly blocking the merger but it is effectively blocking it and Microsoft will be dealing with it for years.

The worth of the acquisition may change entirely within those years.

FTC could dig even deeper, Microsoft could risk having fragments of their company broken up again.

I make jokes about Phil Spencer but he was VISIBLY miserable tonight. I will be surprised if he has this job within a year.

The degrees to which they’ve fucked it now is immense and will fragment like a spider web from here.

Because Papa Microsoft is burning a LOT of money to keep Game Pass going, and Xbox does not sell copies of games. Basically at all.

So they raise their price $10 for games they don’t sell

Every time a huge company tries to buy another huge company and then gets fucked for their efforts I get a boner

And if this falls through, while he most definitely haw another golden parachute ready, Bobby Kotick doesn’t get THIS golden parachute

Which has been the whole thing to me of. Game industry press and console warriors have been basically championing him getting a massive bailout.