Microsoft wins dismissal of gamers' suit over $69 billion Activision deal

Microsoft Corp on Monday won dismissal of a private consumer antitrust lawsuit over its $69 billion proposed purchase of "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard Inc , but the plaintiffs were given 20 days to refine their legal challenge.

[MrDead]

"A federal judge in San Francisco ruled that the lawsuit from a group of video game plaintiffs "lacks allegations" supporting their claim that the proposed acquisition would harm market competition."

Same courts that allows market consolidation in airlines, power companies, ISP's, phone networks, food companies, etc. they always leave us with great consumer choice!

80 billion spent and not a single new game coming that wasn't already, all this to remove the biggest multiplatform IP's and publishers from MS competition?!?... and the judge can't see how that will harm competition, what a prat.

[Lifexline]

You seem like you need a tissue. Lol Sony fanboys are scary the lengths they go. They are always in the news for weird/scary things.

People need to get over it just live your life and none of this should affect you. Why are people so adamant to stop it you will still get clap of duty at the end of the day.

[MrDead]

Child, I'm a gamer not a fanboy, not even a console owner ( https://postimg.cc/4mLnFjCD ).

Don't think MS is going to stop at just removing games and publishers from Sony, do you think they'll allow gamers on platforms like Steam or Epic to keep buying where they wish to choose to buy and play? I guarantee that MS is going to put more established IP's on their own game store to force people off more platforms.

"You seem like you need a tissue" Kid, read up on market consolidation and you'll see anyone that isn't a ceo or a shareholder is gonna need a lot of tissues, especially gamers.

[Neonridr]

@MrDead - if you are a gamer, then you have nothing to worry about. All these games will still be available on PC so you can go about your day. Last time I checked plenty of MS games were available on Steam, why would that change because they buy Activision/Blizzard? It's extremely unlikely they would undo Blizzard.net and try to somehow migrate everything over to the Xbox Games Store or something. Would be totally unrealistic and a waste of time.

[MrDead]

So you think MS is fine with allowing games on competing platforms only if that platform is on PC!?!

You don't think MS will start looking at Steam with established IP's such as Cod, Elder Scrolls, Fallout and think that they're different competition to Sony?
The Games MS has on Steam now benefits MS because their appeal is small and they need Steams revenue to keep them going, same can't be said for established IP's.

[Lifexline]

Do you truly believe market consolidation in the gaming industry is not the way? So games are only getting more and more expensive to the point independent developers can not afford to make these AAA games that gamers are asking for. Which includes open world, 20 plus hours, photo realistic graphics, etc. If a game doesn't have all of those features i listed they are criticized for it. Gamers say oh i will just wait until it goes on sale or buy it used. Yet complaint about Game pass. You know it's bad when developers have to go to the public to fund their games.

If an independent studio makes a game and it doesn't sell they close up it has been happening at such an alarming rate lately. Even publishers close down look at THQ with all the IP they own you would have thought it impossible for them to close but they did. Because gamers are asking for more not less. So the only way for this industry to survive is consolidation. Big companies like Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony etc need to acquire these small developers and help them fund their games and if they fail they still have a cushion to keep running their business and save jobs because they have multibillion dollar companies that can absorb that hit not too many hits but a couple at least.

Look at the film industry look at the music industry the same thing is happening consolidation because that's the only way it can sustain itself. People want more they don't care how it happens or the process they just want more. The game industry is heading that way as well the players in the industry are decreasing not increasing it's happening as we speak get used to it or you fork up the 100's of millions of dollars it cost to make games yourself and help them make a game take that risk for them. But I doubt you could afford it so just keep quiet act like an adult, grab your tissues, and accept reality. This is good for the industry as long as there are multiple "Big" players in the industry competition will remain and keep them in check. Which is why the activionsblizz deal is good overall in the current state the gaming industry is in to give sony some competition.

[Rocketisleague]

For me, any game I run through the Xbox store either doesn't work or crashes, I bought a gaming PC for 1100 2 year ago and was majorly annoyed by the xbox games stored - tried again recently and its the same ****

All those game pass games sitting there looking at me, I feel robbed with deathloop just sitting in my menu looking at me - I can't buy it if I already have it, that would be stupid..right? But it just won't run, Halo crashes every 15 minutes too.

Nah i'm playing returnal now, outside of the Xbox store. Goodbye bethesda games studio. You were okay sometimes in the last 20 years. New Vegas was your highlight.

[Bathyj]

Some of us care about gaming, not just ourselves.

[thesoftware730]

You know what the crazy part is, the Sony-Only crowd have been saying the same thing over and over...they are not even presenting new arguments, facts, reasons even tho MS clearly and Factually shot down the removing CoD from anything by offering it for 10 years on everything with a screen including PS.

They seem to try to predict the future, of what MS might possibly do, they keep mentioning Bethesda when this is a whole different beast with regulators involved on the highest level.

Even with that I can't see why the facts are being ignored...MS is putting it in writing to courts/regulators... MS getting sued by 5 different companies if they break the contracts would be devastating to them...on top of that, they already showed that they do in fact honor their contracts. Ghost wire Tokyo, Minecraft, ESO, and Death Loop...but they ignore that and keep presenting "What ifs".

[darkrider]

That kind of answer... Sad.. Just really sad.... The lack of respect with fellow gamers because of being a blind follower of Microsoft.....

I really want to read what will Microsoft gamers write when another publisher with huge games is sold and not to Microsoft!

[hiawa23]

Agree. Life will continue whether the deal goes through or not. I am fine with whateva happens. The deal will happen.

[edeprez]

@lifexline your take on this is total BS. Many of the best games in the last ten years are indies. I'm not even going to waste my time listing them, but if a game is fun, it will sell.
And secondly, smaller studios needing assistance from publishers is a thing, and always will be a thing. Publishers don't have to be a part of a monopoly to help fund, and profit from game development.
And lastly, my opinion is that there should be choice, not just one place to buy games. And xbox is that last entity I would put in charge of any game series that you don't want to die a quick poorly managed death.

[Kaze88]

@Lifexline

Consolidation is good, like in the movie industry. Yes, Disney owning most of Hollywood is panning out. Like Star Wars doing super good right now lmao. So many high budget movies, but all of them worse than the mediocre movies in the 90's. Then in the gaming sphere we have Anthem, Battlefield 2042, Fallout 76, Cyberpunk 2077, Marvels avengers, Forspoken and the list goes on. This is what happens when you have just money and are lead by the suits to earn more money. There is no creativity or passion, just to make something to grind more money and get people hooked. We have all these games selling all kinds of skins 20 dollar a piece or selling buy to win options. Of course we will always have whales and stupid kids that fall and get used to those, but do we really need this greedy shit? The answer is no, we don't want it or need it. We just want good games.

Microsoft has bottomless cash reserves and in years they got nothing like COD or Skyrim, they had the titles (GOW, Halo, Fable) but eventually even those died. Now that they cannot foster or even compete they try outright buying 1/3 of the industry. On COD they say that it's just one game, well if it's just another game...why do they want it so bad :D First they started promising that it would stay on PS, now they are even prepared to do it in writing for 10 years. Then we have this: Sony has plenty of time to make their own COD in 10 years...so even after all pleasantries they are planning of pulling the rug eventually. Shocking.

People that just take all these changes "it is what it is" are the ones who will watch everything burning while they do not even try to fix it or make it better. We are not the one crying over here, were just here to point out all the shit going on while you keep ignoring all that's happening. big corporations aren't our saviors lmao.

[darthv72]

you're funny dead. you complain about MS only to admit you aren't even a console owner. So you have no horse in this race. That is the epitome of concern trolling.

Even as a pc gamer you would be unaffected by this, so what's really your end game?

[MrDead]

"Even as a pc gamer you would be unaffected by this, so what's really your end game?"

Copy/paste

"Don't think MS is going to stop at just removing games and publishers from Sony, do you think they'll allow gamers on platforms like Steam or Epic to keep buying where they wish to choose to buy and play? I guarantee that MS is going to put more established IP's on their own game store to force people off more platforms."

Just to let you know darthv, there are other platforms then just Xbox and Playstation

[Sephiroushin]

We are affected as a consumer on the long run, and many of us pc gamers know MS is so used to buy companies to take them out of competition (not the case of gaming studios but they do neglect them too)... what do stop MS from no longer releasing games on steam in a couple of years down the road when they are closer to their monopolistic thinking for example?! and then making them exclusive to gamepass on ms store at a dumb price cause as soon as they acquire Activision they will throw a dumb statement thats completely BS that they need to increase GP monthly fee for whatever reason they invent (when real reason was Activision), as of now the xbox app on PC sucks, you even have to download some 3rd party apps for the ps5 controller to work properly (they are so against anything Sony that not even the controller works on their app yet it works on every other launcher just fine), games crash more than they normally would do on other launchers, ala bugiesoft connect, and the xbox app is even worst than EGS app which that is saying alot ...

[GotGame818]

Being a PC gamer Dead complaining about Microsoft, when EVERY Microsoft game comes to PC and Xbox! Also, if you have decent internet you can stream most games, even new games. I was streaming games with a 50mps connection and it worked well. Now I have 400mps, and games stream pretty flawlessly.

People who complain about Microsoft which literally gives gamers multiple ways to play games are ridiculous! Sony doesn't do that, and Playstation only owners don't see anything wrong with that.

Starfield will be playable on Xbox, PC, Tablets, and phones. Where will Spiderman 2 be playable? PS5 ONLY! Yet Microsoft is the bad guy! Laughable!

[Sonyslave3]

MrDead I don’t know why you bring up Epic Games and Steam when they both Support this deal.

Steam god himself said he trusted Microsoft and that he doesn’t need a contract for this deal.

Tim Sweeney just came out yesterday or today, saying this deal is good for competition, especially against Apple and google.

[thesoftware730]

You guys persist with, "Taking games from Sony" as if Sony owns A/B and MS stole them...they are a damn 3rd party studio.

Then there is the tired, "MS can't make good games so they have to buy them"....ok, we know already, ain't that what people on here been saying since forever now? Ok what else you got that is relevant to this actual acquisition/case?

Consolidating? Really MrDead? Sony just bought Bungie, Fucking Bungie dude, along with like 3-4 other devs over the past few years, and openly went on record saying they have billions more on reserve just for acquisitions, let's ignore that. We can play the Pubs Vs Dev game all you want, but consolidation is Consolidation.

Btw, Sony don't own A/B, they are a 3rd party, why are people acting as if CoD is the only thing Sony has/had going for it...its not their property and can be sold, bought, traded however A/B saw/sees fit.

Move on and stop with the wild speculation on what will happen 10 years from now.

[edeprez]

Yeah, Apple and Google are major threats in the video game market. Microsoft must purchase all publishers immediately! They must stop the tyranny of our corporate overlords! By the means of purchasing all video game publishers they will gain the strength to defeat the evil apple and Google! CORPO-TRON ASSEMBLE!

[Sephiroushin]

And what does that say? I mean Valve is not against anything at all, Gabe doesn't care much about anything, they are not even against Tim buying his dumb exclusivity deals with publishers, the only thing he was against was publishers taking money from preorders and later cancelling everything to go egs exclusive for a few months and this was mainly because people got really mad about it since many publishers did this, so Gabe added some rules/policies for publishing games on their storefront ...

And Tim seriusly, this is the pos of a human that want to use a storefront w/o paying a single dime, he will be in favor of everything or anything that doesn't help google or apple, and since google, nvidia and apple were against the sale you clearly know his position.

@thesoftware730
ts not their property and can be sold, bought, traded however A/B saw/sees fit.

No, it cant, that's why there are regulations, for example Arm is a private company property of Arm itself and they cant be sold, bought, traded however Arm sees fit, else Nvidia would have acquired them for 40b, but the acquisition for those 40b was stopped.
Although A/B deal will go through that's for sure, but they need to be careful now on which they want to acquire

[Gamer_Dude]

Sony has been so dishonest and burned so many bridges that they will be the biggest loser no matter whether the deal goes through or not.

[Bobertt]

It's San Francisco what do you expect they reward criminals.

[gangsta_red]

Let me guess, you were one of the video game plaintiffs that was apart of the lawsuit against MS.

[HyperMoused]

80 billion spent and not a single new game coming that wasn't already, all this to remove the biggest multiplatform IP's and publishers from MS competition?!?

They havnt won the deal yet to influence any games or make any decisions on new games, and then games take years to make, so its righty so no games have been announced, and we know MS's track record with new games. If you play on PC you may have to download the game from the MS store instead of steam...if they choose to do that.....and Sony buy and own studios and keep games of xbox, not sure why its such a big problem that MS do it, if anything MS are way more pro PC than Sony.

[edeprez]

You sound schizophrenic.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

Pathetic.

Which game is getting removed? If games miss PlayStation that’s Jim Ryan’s fault for not accepting the 10 year proposal.

[KillBill]

"80 billion spent and not a single new game coming that wasn't already" what does that have to do with anything. Point being the ABK deal will open up their market to Nintendo and still remain on PlayStation for at minimum the 10 years with zero indications of it being removed from PlayStation to begin with.

[wiz7191]

@MrDead
Mannnn MS aint removing a thing , it’s only Sony fanboys who keeps crying that mess .. Anybody with a brain knows COD would never be exclusive , you really think they spent $60B for exclusively rights for COD ? No .. there’s nooooooo FINANCIAL reason for them to do such. That want to make that $60B back and then some , they know that won’t happen with COD being exclusive. Sony doesn’t want the deal to go through because now they can’t get those COD exclusive deals anymore, like they did when they had the marketing rights. The judge must of been smart enough to understand that fact , even today Bethesda still supporting and releasing updates for all games. They don’t have to keep supporting anything PS , but they do anyway. Is Bungies new IP multiplat ?? I don’t think it is ..

[darthv72]

Did anyone seriously think this was going to go through? Can't fault them for trying but I'm betting even they figured it was a shot in the dark.

[Babadook7]

Better question…

Does anyone still trust the legal morass? Microsoft has gotten away with intellectual property theft, and anticompetitive behaviour, time and time and again. They’ve made their fortune off of it.

[Babadook7]

@MrMilchick

Sarcasm?

[343_Guilty_Spark]

Oh so now it’s bad faith when the plaintiffs can’t support their argument?

Well that’s exactly what’s going to happen to Sony.

They can’t prove anything so they just whine and complain.

Show us how supporting all of gaming and putting COD on GP for $20 a month with all of the previous CODs and the 400+ other games hurts consumers.

More places to play at a lower entry price.

Sony tells you buy a PS5, pay $70, then pay another $60+ for PSN and you don’t get anything but a pre-selected old games and network access… yea such an amazing deal

[richardmmorales]

When ask did anyone seriously think this was going to go through? are you saying the Activision Blizzard deal or this stupid lawsuit? If it's the first yes. I believe the Activision Deal is going to go through. if you mean the lawsuit. then no.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

SDF did

[Sonic1881]

The only thing I will say about the activision/Blizzard acquisition is that Sony doesn't have one developer who can make a Call of Duty alternative every year. I'm sure they're going to use that argument against Microsoft. Not saying they'll win the case but thats a lot of money Sony will be losing. I don't even think Sony has the developer to do that since COD comes out every year

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Sigh unfortunately the system is corrupt anyways imo.

[Chris12]

When the legal argument fails, then the system is corrupt. Fanboy logic 101.

[thesoftware730]

You peep that right.

I thought the same thing...a while back they were praising regulators for attempting to block the deal, now they are corrupt ..the comedy on this site is thick.

[Army_of_Darkness]

Ms winning was inevitable. Do you guys even realize how powerful MS corp actually is??!

[The_Blue]

You pro-Sony guys on here are unbelievably biased. smh

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Oh I believe every system is corrupt there is no un corruptible entity because everyday we are human but differences is how blatant a corrupted entity is lol.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

Lol you sound like Donald Trump whining the election rigged because you lost

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Lmao 🤣

[richardmmorales]

Yeah it is. If it wasn't this deal would of probably been already over with. lol
This whole thing is all political.

[jznrpg]

Interested to see if they change their language of the complaint . They have 20 days

[SolidusSn4ke]

Their lawyers will want to - more money for them.

But it’s been clear from day 1 this is a quick cash grab for the lawyers that was never going anywhere.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

“We at N4G do not like this deal because it’s mean”

[Fishy Fingers]

That was unexpected :|

[gangsta_red]

It's almost as if the judge couldn't be bothered with something so trivial and thrown together.

Also...

"A federal judge in San Francisco ruled that the lawsuit from a group of *video game plaintiffs*"

Gee, I wonder what type of group of video game plaintiffs they were from?

[thesoftware730]

I'm guessing the "Phony" types! Lol

[Promachos]

Explain this to me. Lets say this merger doesn't pass, what is stopping Activision Blizzard from excluding Sony from future CODs as retaliation.
It's their game after all.

[The_Blue]

Exactly this. But it's hard to use logic when you think your "team" is a significant multi-billion cooperation.

[edeprez]

About 42% of their profit. That's what's stopping them.

[Sephiroushin]

They are public traded company, so what you expect, shareholders ...
More than 40% of their revenues comes from Sony Playstation, if they stop getting that money shareholders would leave and then the company would take a big hit on their valuation .... So yea would be stupid to take a hit of 40% $$$ just for retaliation, they can take some time exclusivity deal from MS though

[QuantumMechanic]

Not just leave... shareholders would sue the C-suite for negligence/not managing the affairs of the business in the best interest of the shareholders.

[blacktiger]

Activision/Blizzard cant do that cause they are public trading and there for they have to allow access to market, If they sell to one they have to be available to another unless it's completly exclusive. Exclusive has to have definition of Anti competitive. If they are caught favouring, this could bring lawsuit by SEC

[jjb1981]

MS doesn't care about their own IPs anymore. They just need to make that Game Pass money back so the investors get rich and so that Creepy Bobby boy can get himself that shiny golden parachute. I've been a fan of Call of Doody since the beginning. If it becomes exclusive to a subscription then I'll be done with it. I can't say anyone will make it worse than Activision has. MS will probably just let them do their own thing which could be a double-edged sword.

[princejb134]

Is MS every studio they touch goes downhill slowly

[Gravesinger_]

So many crybabies in this thread, if the deal goes through..100% chance your life doesn't change, if the deal doesn't go through....100% chance your life doesn't change. YOU POEOPLE need to relax lol

[cell989]

MS loves to monopolize everything. They've been doing it from the beginning. They're not going to stop now.

[HardKnockKid24]

You don’t know what a monopoly is based on this comment

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

You know the more telling thing regarding the discussion of this article? The way the Xbox fans are acting in comparison to the Sony fans about this news is just, wow (they're actually whining more more the "Sony Ponies"). Keep in mind, the Activision deal still hasn't gone through yet, so we can't say with any certainty which way it will go, Microsoft still has to fight off the US, UK and EU competition watchdogs.

[CrimsonWing69]

All this is so silly. If this acquisition was deemed illegal then we could potentially say any acquisition is harmful to consumers.

Just give it a rest, already. My god, I’m hoping this deal goes through in a hurry so we can just move on with things.

[1nsomniac]

Bill gates and Microsoft are going to win everything over the foreseeable future credible evidence or not. His political standing currently will allow him and Microsoft to do whatever they want legally. He currently owns the system until agenda 21 is over with at least.

[YourMommySpoils]

A day reading Microsoft has become similar to a day reading Donald Trump.