Xbox |OT|

[EpicRandy]

Ryuu96 said:

We haven't talked too much about the Statement of Issues from New Zealand, but they also think that Nintendo does not compete with Sony or MS:

We do not currently consider that the merged entity would have the ability or incentive to foreclose Nintendo in any market. Nintendo focuses primarily on its own first-party games such as the popular Mario franchise. As a result, it does not appear to compete closely with Sony or Microsoft, and instead is marketed as a more family-friendly, casual offering.

Source: Idas

Guess it really is The Five Eyes vs The Rest of the World

Won't be surprised if Canada, Australia and New Zealand join the block soon as a last ditch effort to support UK.

Yeah, they are purposefully ignoring that companies find niches in markets all the time, it's not uncommon, yet they are still considered part of the market. Also the number of non-exclusive titles by far eclipses the number of exclusive even on the Switch. Nintendo is still responding to gamers' needs and if they did not exist their users would most likely resort to buying an Xbox/PS.

Also, Nintendo's Number of exclusives and Sony's are very much on par there's only Microsoft that features way less than both others. In that way, and since we are responding to a dumb market definition we could make one for ourselves and view both Sony and Nintendo as a duopoly that accepted to separate the market along different appeal for first-party content while MS try to challenge both established juggernaut mostly with 3rd party support and doing so are trying to compete more closely with PlayStation first. Then blocking this deal is a win for the established duopoly.

What's even more silly with this definition is even if we accept it's true, the merger still does not place MS anywhere near a dominant position over Sony the likes Sony enjoys over Xbox currently even without deals MS offered. So those authorities are not protecting consumers from anti-competitive behavior, they are preventing competition from increasing in a market that lacks a proper level of it. The worst is we know all those challenges are tied to high levels of communication between those different authorities trying to coordinate efforts so that one circumvents the legal limits of the others and artificially increases 'credibility' in a bid to hide what's is only an anti-big-tech stance without actual merits.

Last edited by EpicRandy - on 03 July 2023