I wouldn't expect Diablo 4 to show up on GP day 1 if the deal isn't closed by then.

I think we need to take Ryuu crystal ball away.  He is seeing conspiracy in every nook and cranny.  Let me tell you about Americans, especially in government agency, they do not recognize other countries.  I highly doubt that the FTC is making any complicated plans or even know how the CMA will judge the MS deal.  Instead, these people are looking at their own careers and how to further their ability to make big bucks.

100% that as well as the past 5+ years of American politics has shown us, voting along party lines. With no in-between or room for compromise. 

Tbf my crystal ball predicted that FTC would block the deal

They may not know for sure, but it's at least clearly what they are betting on, maybe they are making the hope based on CMA's Phase 1 though.

Former FTC Commissioner: FTC has an uphill battle ahead with Microsoft lawsuit - YouTube

Apparently the EU regulator just confirmed in a statement that Xbox made no promises about Zenimax games not being made exclusive as FTC claims. A big part of FTC case built on a lie. Judge should toss it.

Edit: Seems somebody else already posted about this on the previous page and I missed it while typing my long 2023 expectations list. 

No, they are not betting on another country nixing the deal, instead this is all about personal careers.  It does not matter if MS succeeds or not, instead it's a high-profile deal where someone wants on their record of standing up to big tech. You can tell by how weak the whole arguments are.  This is for show and nothing else.  I just believe you have an inflated opinion of US government officials.  If you asked them what the EU is they would tell you it's a candy bar.

Of course it matters if Microsoft succeeds, are you really suggesting that they genuinely want on their career "we stood up to Microsoft and completely failed" Lol. That does not help their career at all. They want this deal blocked because that is what proves that they've stood up to big tech and won, standing up to big tech and failing is irrelevant.

Their arguments are weak on purpose, it's a delay tactic, instead of skipping straight to federal courts they are using their internal courts who firstly have to approve their blocking the deal, then Microsoft can take it to federal courts but only after FTC's internal courts have decided, the argument is weak so that when FTC commission brings it to their internal courts, they will send it back to FTC commissioners to re-do it, then it goes back to the internal court, they approve or deny the block and then Microsoft can take it to federal courts.

It's all a delay tactic and why? Because FTC either wants someone outside to block the deal (CMA) which would kill the deal completely or they want to delay it long enough for Microsoft to abandon the deal (the court case is August at minimum and that's for the internal procedure, Microsoft needs to get through that before they can take it to federal courts).

This is precisely why companies have brought a case to the Supreme Court to allow companies to force FTC out of this internal court process and skip straight to federal courts, because this tactic is a very real tactic that FTC employs to try to get deals scuttled.

This is all stuff that I've read/listened to from lawyers...

when Eminem said "The FTC wont let me be" or whatever, I felt that