Microsoft clarifies one of the most controversial findings of the FTC federal trial

Microsoft legal counsel clarifies why the company ran simulations to see what would happen if Call of Duty and Activision games were not made available on PlayStation.

[MrDead]

Never forget MS has paid an almost combined $80 billion not on creating games, but to remove them from competition. This will not end with just banning Sony gamers from the publishers MS consumes, the future is less choice for us the consumer.

[TriniOutsider]

People will be okay with such things. Because there are people out there who hate competition from the other two sides. Especially the Sony/Playstation brand.

[MrDead]

Its sad that they have any support at all. MS, the one company that has near unlimited funds to bring us endless new IP's decides not to do that, instead they choose to spend $80 billion to take games away and restrict access to them.

[Crows90]

Hate competition? You mean would like real competition? Nintendo competes with their own strategy and it works well.

MS doesn't want to compete. They just want to purchase as many studios as possible in order to kick competition out of the industry.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

More crying and whining.

[babadivad]

I've only seen Playstation fans argue for zero competition.

[ArmrdChaos]

So in the past all I heard was PC/Playstation was the way to go and everyone had gaming rigs. Microsoft no longer had exclusives because they were available on PC. So what changed? Or is the real problem that the games are not exclusive to Sony or that Sony zealots can take credit for a game's success because it was on a Sony console? Microsoft made Starfield available day one on PC. What would Sony have done had they secured exclusive rights? Yeh....anti-consumer...sure... if you say so. I can't wait for the amount of whining when the next Elder Scrolls is about to come out. Start your petitions now...maybe you have a couple thousand signatures when the time finally comes around.

[fr0sty]

"Or is the real problem that the games are not exclusive to Sony or that Sony zealots can take credit for a game's success because it was on a Sony console?"

The elephant in the room you choose to ignore, Sony has a long history, dating back generations, of creating stellar first party original IP. Microsoft does not. Sony has proven themselves capable of creating their own classics, so they don't have to buy entire publishers to keep games from being on their competition's consoles. Microsoft cannot claim the same, they have a small and tired handful exclusives that they created themselves, which are about sequeled to death, and rather than investing in creating new original content, they buy out entire publishers and take games that were in development for competing consoles and make them exclusive... about as anti-consumer as you can get, far beyond financing the development of a game so that it will launch exclusive and it was intended to be exclusive from the start. Yet here you are cheering against your own interests as a gamer.

[neutralgamer1992]

MS wants gamepass only model. And I would say many Xbox fans are happy with that. Issue isn’t just these acquisitions it’s what Sony and Nintendo may acquire and take those games away from others too. People just don’t understand these moves by MS will have reactions that will take games away from Xbox

[MrDead]

Like turkeys voting for Christmas

[1Victor]

@ neutral:”People just don’t understand these moves by MS will have reactions that will take games away from Xbox”
Warning ⚠️ SARCASM ahead ⚠️
Oh great ancient wiseman can you grace us with your infinite wisdom with an example.
End of SARCASM
Last I checked Sony purchased bungie but so far no game(marathon ) have been taken from Xbox while Microsoft in the same scenario took away their recent game and elder scrolls 6 is in the same chopping block

[Sharky231]

Wonder how Xbox people would react if Sony bought capcom or Take 2? Then kept GTA or Resident Evil from them. I promise it wouldn’t be pretty. I say turn about is fair play.

[oldenjon]

I don’t think people don’t understand that, and I think you might be missing the point. Microsoft set a bad precedent and now competitors have to do the same to stay afloat.

[john416]

You do realize that Sony does the same thing with games right ? How do you think we got days gone the last of us and other killer games and Microsoft did not. We can’t be the pot calling the kettle black here.

[MrDead]

Please list the multiplatform publishers any platform holder has brought and banned from competition... you'll find this is unique to MS.

Single games are not the same as spending $80 billion on banning two multiplatform publishers

[Zeref]

I don't give af lol, Sony has been limiting choices for Xbox gamers for ages.

MS just beat them at their own game.

Starfield was gonna be exclusive to Playstation. So Sony just got a taste of their own medicine.

[badz149]

WOW! blame Sony for MS incompetence in making compelling GoTY calibre games!

or are you talking about timed exclusive? MS has been doing it for ages too. WTF are you talking about then?

[343_Guilty_Spark]

It’s on 99% of competition. The 1% is certain games on PlayStation

[Mr_cheese]

I don't think you truly understand percentage because you're just throwing numbers out there.

[InUrFoxHole]

Never forget the competition raised the price of PSN just to add nothing. You're welcome. Atleast one company added something

[Whitey2k]

I think the same thing would happen if Sony was to buy or merge with EA Games expecially with there medal of honour and battlefield and command and conquer ips could possibly generate more money

[TriniOutsider]

That would never happen, EA would sooner join MS than Sony in the long run. Hell the head of EA supported the buy of Activision.

[Crows90]

The head of ea has no dog in the fight. It's not about supporting. They're not a platform holder at all. Business is business for them, screw the consumer.

[Redemption-64]

That is some fanboyish narrative. EA being in support of MS buying Activision doesn't equate to them wanting to join them. Microsoft is struggling to buy Activision and you think regulators are going to allow to buy another large publisher? There are other companies that can not only match Microsoft's check book but exceed them. Why do you think MS is worried about Google, Amazon and other large tech giants in the gaming industry?

[gold_drake]

theyd rather go to another American owned company, believe me.

[EvertonFC]

Basically a slip up, that old chesnut 🤔somebody got paid off for sure.

[TriniOutsider]

The whole goal of this buy-out is simply to take away from the Playstation brand. This is why I hope they aren't allowed to just buy up publishers and developers like Activision in the future. We are slowly entering an age where monopolies are being ignored because Phil Spencer went and cried about being in 3rd in some Podcast. Then drummed up support from investors and the media to back the Activision deal.

When Sony and Nintendo start making their moves I hope I can see how fanboys are gonna react as well.

[OptimusDK]

Sony is the monopoly all we heard from the Sony camp is Xbox has no games. You brought it on yourself now you live with it.

[derek]

Brought what upon ourselves? Lol. Now it's are fault for commenting on the fact that xbox has no games, well they have 1 game now but it's been over a decade of drought. Sony has not and has never been a barrier to Microsoft bringing games to Xbox. It's Microsofts lack of interest in gaming in general, unless they can control/dominate it like they do in the pc os space, that led them to ignore xbox for over 10 years. Now they think they can spend their way into forcing everyone to by into their crummy ecosystem, but it will not work as Microsoft is tacky unliked brand.

[mkis007]

What games has xbox gained from these aquisitions hmm? Last I checked they were all coming there before aquisition without exception. There was a rumor about timed starfield exclusivity but it was never going to happen with bethesda.

[Amplitude]

Guys this might come as a surprise but, your opinions, N4G comments, the podcast whining, fanboy accusations and media interviews have nothing to do with the results of the acquisition. Nobody brought anything on anybody. A multi billion dollar company bought out another company because at the end of the day, legally they were allowed to do so and they thought it would be beneficial. Also, yes, the acquisition will result in exclusive PC/XB games but they take years to develop. You're not just gonna have a stream of Activision exclusives a few months after court's over

Sony isn't a monopoly. Microsoft isn't a monopoly. Both companies do have games. Competition includes taking over companies and making exclusive deals for early access and DLC and both companies do it and have done it - as much as I personally hate it and wish everything was on everything.

You're on N4G commenting so you're clearly pretty into gaming. Just bite the bullet, save up a bit and buy a PS5 and a PC so you can play everything and stop being psychopaths.

[Profchaos]

Consolidation sucks no consumers should support in the long run were the ones that will suffer

[Crows90]

Unfortunately the most mindless fans are in support.

Now suddenly they all agree Ms has no games. But now that they've bought a bunch of studios the problem they've been denying all these generations is gone.

[S2Killinit]

Fu@k MS. The snake in the garden of console market.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

Play on your PC you always brag about

[S2Killinit]

Never bragged about my PC and I have no interest in this game. Its the principle. They are a horrible company and continue to damage consoles gaming from the inside, so f@ck them.

[jznrpg]

“We didn’t even talk about it” they said. mS is the worst thing ever to happen to gaming.

[S2Killinit]

They truly are.

[DefenderOfDoom2]

Well if Microsoft pulled COD off PlayStation, Sony could react by not pulling DESTINY off XBOX.anf that would make Microsoft as the villain. Just a thought. It would be good for both Sony and Microsoft just to keep CoD and Destiny on all platforms.

[BrainSyphoned]

It was announced at the purchase of Bungie that they will remain multiplatform now and in the future.

[Elda]

True..but Sony owns Bungie & Sony can change that stance if they choose to, especially for any unannounced new future releases.

[Seraphim]

@Elda - according to reports, the contract included that Bungie retained their independence. ie: it doesn't matter what Sony wants, it's up to Bungie to make the decisions on their games and what platforms they will develop and release on. It was a very strange deal, but one that I imagine Bungie had to take solely for the financial backing. Regardless, if the reports are correct Bungie retains final say, not Sony.

[S2Killinit]

@Seraphim
It does matter what Sony wants. They are now the same company. All that clause does is leave the final word with the Bungie management. It doesnt mean that at some point they both do not agree that it would be better to make it exclusive.

[rippermcrip]

So Microsoft caught lying again (they said it was never discussed), so they double down with another lying... somehow trying to blame Sony. Like why would Sony not agree to a deal for COD just like they do for any other big publisher? Unless of course MS was trying to pull some bullshit deal.

[gold_drake]

mhm.
sure.

[mastershredder]

ran simulations …. lol right

[blackblades]

I remember hearing they ran simulators for redfall. The simulator outcome didnt match the real outcome and well know what happened.

[keegamer80]

Sony has bought other game companies. They tried to screw Nintendo. They pay companies to stay away from Gamepass. Sony isn't innocent in all this. They tried to block the deal just because. In the end they all want the same thing. So regardless of whether your a fan boys or a fan of all consoles that doesn't change anything. That's why it took crossplay so long to happen. Microsoft was open to it 1st gen. Sony was killing it with PS2. Didn't think it was right. Then 360 is owning the PS3 and says the exact same thing Sony did. I believe that this deal is a good thing in the end. Microsoft was forced to play ball with Sony, Nintendo, and many more companies.