Microsoft Aims to Force Sony to Share More Internal Details in Activision Blizzard Acquisition Case

Microsoft has accused Sony of cherry-picking the documents it presented for the legal battle against the FTC and wants to compel the house of PlayStation to provide more.

[ApocalypseShadow]

Microsoft aims to ruin the game industry for their benefit. Court case or not. That is certain.

Why don't they just call their sold out congressmen to help them out like before. Haven't heard a peep from them since they won the case.

[Jin_Sakai]

Microsoft doesn’t care about anything other than eliminating the competition. Tell do whatever they can to get what they want whether it’s good or bad for the industry.

[DaCajun]

You mean just like any other for profit business that has ever existed in the world?

You fan trolls and your conspiracy theories. When will any of you understand businesses don't care about anything but profit. None care about consumers until they get caught doing inappropriate actions that violates a laws then they pretend to be remorseful, sorry, or surprised of their actions.

[Jin_Sakai]

“You mean just like any other for profit business that has ever existed in the world?”

Yes except Microsoft has the resources to eliminate the competition and buy their way to the top. We need competition and not some greedy mega corporation like Microsoft controlling the gaming industry. What good have Microsoft done for gaming?

[il-JumperMT]

its been MS tactics for as long as i remember. even buying out competition to just kill them.

[Zeref]

"What good have Microsoft done for gaming?"

Xbox brought online console gaming to the mainstream and revolutionized console FPS games with Halo.

Also without Xbox as competition, Sony would have gotten away with all the shit they were trying to pull in the PS3 era. It would have been the worst era in gaming.

Without Xbox, console gaming would have been dead decades ago.

[itsmebryan]

You guys are hilarious. You forget how involved Sony was with the FTC to block the ABK deal. FTC used information they got from Sony in the case. Remember Sony said " We don't care about COD we just want to block the sell ( ABK)". Why shouldn't Microsoft see all the evidence against them?

No one else in the industry had a problem with the deal not, Nintendo, not any publisher , just Sony. It was approved by every country in the world. But, you guys on this site and Sony know more then everyone.

Please explain how Microsoft is ruining gaming industry.

[thesoftware730]

Exactly this,

MS tries to buy A/B, and Sony tries to block it, literally involving themselves.

When you get involved for whatever reason, you have to expect this, when has it been dirty to want to see the actual proof of evidence being used against you? When has it been bad to call to the opposition to the floor, to expose as much dirt as possible? Do you people on here know how court proceedings work?

But nope, on N4G, MS is going crazy, and calling Sony to the floor, for a fight they started is somehow wrong..smh.

[wiz7191]

I’m still trying to figure out why Sony is so worried about MS and their cases , doesn’t Sony have two cases of their own they should be more worried about .. lol the UK suing for $8B and Germany about to sue ..

[ApocalypseShadow]

There's no point in trying to explain the obvious to the blind who have already made up their mind on what consolidation does. But what the hell... Let's see if you can keep up.

EA. Do they really need explaining to you? Their buying power? Their destructive behavior over the years?

EA purchased many a developer, ruined many of those developers, took over their engines that gave other developers less choices on what multiplatform engines they could use like Renderware. Pushing many to run to Unreal Engine.

EA owns many sports licenses, player licenses and things like ESPN licenses. How many other football games have you had a choice to play? When NFL 2K was no more, did EA's price stay at $29.99 or did it go up? How much is Madden now? How many boxing games have you bought in the last decade?

EA now owns many of their racing competitors. From Criterion to Code Masters. Is one company owning other racing developers a good thing? Will there be less innovation? Less choices? Is your brain comprehending so far? Would you still like a Burnout game? Or is EA owning what's left of Criterion and pushing them to develop Need for Speed instead a better option for you?

Microsoft owning multiple large publishers isn't a good thing. Microsoft owning dozens of franchises that were once multiplatform for everyone to enjoy, is not a good thing. Spending billions to deny access to the majority of gamers worldwide to push subscriptions, is not a good thing.

Lastly, and this is a question of the good of the industry, besides purchasing Halo, Gears, Skyrim, Perfect Dark, etc from other companies, and being worth 2 TRILLION, what new games have Microsoft created in the last decade for its player base internally? Why are smaller companies like Nintendo and Sony able to but they are not able?

But you believe they are a positive force in the industry? Have you woken up yet? When Microsoft pushes cloud and game pass and goes digital only, is not having a physical buying choice fine with you? Lack of ownership fine with you? Prices controlled fine with you? Digital purchases changed or taken away fine with you?

[derek]

@itsme, get over it you talk like it's 2022 still . The parties have come to an agreement for cod and Microsoft already owns ABK. The ftc case ain't going anywhere and there is no need for Sony to give Microsoft any further disclosure.

[Reaper22_]

They didn't forget anything. It's just their usual hypocrisy showing like always. Remember, anything about microsoft = bad and Sony = good and wholesome. They're still mad because they thought sony's attempt to block the deal was gonna work. But little did they know that in their attempt they exposed themselves for doing similar things which helped Microsoft close the deal. They got a taste of their own medicine and didn't like it.

Sega and Nintendo celebrated this deal and Sony got a dose of well deserved karma.

[shinoff2183]

Sony was asked for info and gave info, thats kinda what the ftc is suppose to do if I remember correctly. Even if so damn what ms was in the process of buying it's 2nd major publisher, along with two handfuls of studios. Gtfo lol
Many other companies had issue with it it's just your being selective Bryan. It's cute.

Ms is ruining gaming by pushing an all digital future, pushing cloud gaming, etc. That's kind of a big deal to me.

[shinoff2183]

Shadow, I did wanna point out one thing though. With ea

Your right ea has been a pos company but the nfl auctioned that license off back in 04 ea just paid more then 2k. So this one's on the nfl and their greed. Hoping someday 2k can get back into it. Since madden can't even do stats right

[Darkegg]

Is Sony cherry-picking or not?

[Zeref]

Idk everyone seems to be happy about the acquisition. Including ActiBlizz employees.

Excluding Sony and you Sony fanboys lol.

[Zeref]

"this is a question of the good of the industry, besides purchasing Halo, Gears, Skyrim, Perfect Dark, etc from other companies, and being worth 2 TRILLION, what new games have Microsoft created in the last decade for its player base internally? "

This is the most intellectually dishonest question I've ever seen.
Like, are you listening to yourself 😂??

They entered newly in the market with a console.
Were they supposed to spawn game developers out of thin air?

They could have maybe scrounged up a studio from their Flight Simulator team. Where are they getting the rest of the devs from? Poaching them one by one from other studios?

Do you realize how dumb you sounded just now? That never would have been enough to compete with Playstation.

Buying studios was and still is the best strategy to acquire games and talent.
You playstation fanboys arguing about this are just showing how you don't understand a single thing about Game Development or the gaming industry.

Also the weird part is that Xbox never really used the full power of Microsoft's treasure chest (which is what they should have done in the first place) until recently.

Call of Duty, Elder Scrolls and even GTA should have been first party a long time ago.

[gold_drake]

love the hypocrisy coming from MS.

this whole thing has made them look so bad, even worse than before and it shows in their sales.

things are redacted for a reason. if its not relevant for the case than its confidential. what they think is relevant, is irrelevant.

they won the case, they bought up one of the biggest franchises, because they are incompetent to make good games, and it should be done with.

also, haven't they made a streaming deal with unisoft?

lets see those documents too while we're at it.

all of it.

this pisses me so off i cant even.

also, merry christmas :)

[purple101]

its ok xbox gamers saw through all this like glass, and when they found out they'd waited 12 years for games such as starfield,

AND, cod STILL not on gamepass for xmas, that would be the final straw for them

[Plague-Doctor27]

Xbox gamers went through MS giving up on the One after 3 years, closing off nearly all their studios, the Series launch with literally no titles, disappointments in 2021 and nothing in 2022 and they are still Xbox gamers. I don't think waiting 3 months for CoD on Gamepass is going to change their minds either

[Zeref]

How is it hypocrisy? Sony is actively trying to block their purchase. If they wanna get involved that bad. Cough up your data that's against the deal. They are participants.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

Crying into 2024

[gold_drake]

sorry ur late to the party. but that was a week ago.

[-Foxtrot]

I don't understand, I thought this was just between the FTC and Microsoft so why they aiming things towards Sony still when it's over. The FTC is the one prolonging this.

Just seems like an excuse to learn some useful info or something

[Abriael]

The FTC asked to investigate the deals with Ubisoft and Sony and the judge granted the motion.

[Reaper22_]

No, like I said above sony's dishonesty about them doing similar things and only trying to hide it is why this is happening. They weren't being truthful and didn't want to disclose their own smaller deals doing similar things. Microsoft was always confident that the deal would go through. Sony never proved how this deal would hurt the industry. They couldn't. Not without answering some hard questions about why deals like this is good for for them but when someone else does it they cry wolf. They can't do to microsoft what they did to Sega and nintendo.

[Extermin8or3_]

Sony haven't purchased any developers ti date they have not been doing the same thing. The smaller deals for timed exclusivity are just that vastly smaller deals and thus not really comparable. Was nothing stopping MS competing using those tactics oh except ofc MS themselves adopting an unsustainable business model aimed only at ending their competition, that canibalises their games sales meaning the only way they can get 3rd party exclusives is fully fund their developmen way more than the 10'a of millionnthey cost Sony.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Microsoft you all making yourselves look bad.

[BeHunted]

Not really. Microsoft has won all their cases without even trying.

[DarXyde]

Without trying?

Quite drawn out for a low level of effort.

[Gamingsince1981]

Shame that's the only thing they can win

[Mr_cheese]

Imagine thinking any of that is bad for Sony fans who actually get to play the games regardless of awards.

Leave the numbers and awards to the companies and the games to the gamers.

[DarXyde]

SFolk,

Hadn't heard about that. News to me, but if we're talking about the Game Awards, am I the only one who found it kind of pathetic that Starfield wasn't even in the conversation but needed to give a "good sportsmanlike" kudos to the nominees? On the surface it feels like a nod to the nominees, but taking out space to do that really just seems like then trying to say "hey, we exist. Remember us? We made a game this year too."

Sure enough, Spider-Man 2 didn't win. But this was really wild year for quality content and I don't think anyone would be upset with any of the nominees winning.

Not to be that guy, but the argument can easily be flipped on its ear that Starfield for *slightly more* recognition than Gollum and Kong. Spider-Man 2 didn't win anything, but it was clearly considered and in the conversation. I think that needs to be said, and the fact that it is on one platform is a testament to its public acclaim.

[Sephiroushin]

@sfolk

stop with the spam geez, did you just created that account to be the winner of a spam awards or something …

on topic without trying?
this went on for a year, and many internal things , games not doing good and so on got leaked, i would not call that “without trying”

[garos82]

Just like their attitude to making games i suppose

[thesoftware730]

How so?

By demanding discovery information? Sony involved itself in this fight buddy, if the FTC is using Sony as an example of "hurting the market" because Sony was so loud about it, then MS must show the same diligence to win their case.

[DrDoomer]

Microsoft is cancer.

[Rockstar]

you're not wrong...

[itsmebryan]

Ask insomniac what they think of Sony now. They been forced into being a Marvel game sweat shop. Let's not forget about all of Sony's layoffs, canceled games and closed studios all while selling over 50 million consoles. Make it make sense.

[Darkegg]

To be fair, Nintendo operates at high efficiency. Nobody comes close except for like a few indies. Not sure why. Both Sony and Microsoft need to have first party studio that are efficient to begin with.

[EvertonFC]

All this BS is having the opposite effect for MS, gamers are turning off from Xbox with this BS as you don't want to hate or pick on Sony or Nintendo with the fan base they have from over the last 25 years.

You can tell with this year's sales for Xbox consoles abysmal sales compared to Nintendo and PlayStation that gamers have spoken what they think to acquisition BS of buying up the industry.

GP or NOT gamers have spoken and it ain't gonna be good for Xbox.

[Reaper22_]

Sony will most likely lose on this. Basically, Microsoft is forcing them to reveal that they have done similar things in the past.

[Babadook7]

Anyone paying attention to Sonys purchasing of IPs in the past, knows there's a marked difference in the those purchases and this.

[Reaper22_]

Not really a big difference.The only difference is they spend less because they don't have the cash that Microsoft does. They couldn't develop their own streaming tech so they went and bought Gaikai. I guess people forgot about that one.

[Babadook7]

@above

No
They don’t buy IPs that are big on other platforms and then make them exclusive. They don’t buy developers that produce multiplats and get them to produce exclusives. It’s totally different

[Demetrius]

Sony still would do great without call of duty, it ain the same nowadays anyway its all about multiplayer

[343_Guilty_Spark]

Beautiful

[Spenok]

But why, they won? Literally the ONLY reason they would do this is to ruin their competition. Like they conveniently said they wanted to.