Finally, a regulatory body that seems to be doing it's job in an impartial manner. All those questions are legit, some of them have already been answered some have already been addressed through legally binding deal offering, but all are legit and show the will of the EC to judge the deal on it's merits and not some politically motivated argument. It also shows that the EC is willing to engage with MS to resolve any potential issue.

At this point a think MS could agree to extend the Activision deal to every existing Acti-blizzard IPs and almost all of the questions/issues they try to portray would be resolved. Although it would be a nuclear option it would have a side effect of greatly protecting those assets value. 

If MS were to use this nuclear option only those easy to answer questions would be left:

More broadly, does Microsoft compete most closely with Sony or Nintendo, or both? Which of the two competes most closely with Microsoft's Xbox in the distribution of console games, or do they both do so equally?

• but the answer to that question would be of no effect if the context they extend the deal to cover all existing IP.

Further questions ask about the prevalence of cross-play in the gaming industry, where gamers play against others on a different console. Are there technical barriers to offering those services?

• The only true barrier is sony unwillingness to do so but it's not technical. XD Other than that different framerate, resolutions, and IO devices for input will offer various degrees of fairness but that can be mitigated with sufficient data and features in place.

What time and resources are necessary to start providing a cloud game streaming service? What are the main factors of competition between such services, and how likely are consumers to subscribe to more than one service at once?

• Gaikai did so more than 10 years ago and Sony bought them so it's probably not that hard for any actor in the industry as of now, although the success of those services has not materialized yet.

The commission asks if "compatibility layers" can be used to run Windows games on non-Windows PCs. Would Microsoft have the ability to prevent Activision Blizzard's games from being compatible in this way on other operating systems in the future?

• Yes technically it's doable but MS as probably no will to do so. Having all their catalog on Steam is pretty much garrant to that, when a game is sold through steam it is of no value for MS that the game run on Windows or another OS.
• MS may need to offer a legally binding concession on this but it cannot guarantee that performance will not be affected by the compatibility layer.

Could cloud gaming be an effective way to bring more PC games to non-Windows operating systems, the commission asks.

• Yes as proven by the Samsung tv app

Should Activision Blizzard's games be only available for streaming on Windows PCs, would this attract additional users to Windows and discourage users from buying PCs with other operating systems?

• Could be but, Xcloud is platform agnostic and is already on Android, Ios, Samsung smart tv, any device that run Edge, safari, google chrome (officially) and all other chromium based browser (tested and it work on opera/opera gx). Ms don't lock out content from Xcloud based on where it is being run. 
• MS may have to make leagaly binding concession here but probably an easy one to agrees to.

Red letter media is in HIgh on life, that caught me by surprise...

I wonder what is going on with Gamepass. For as long as I have been subbed to Gamepass we have always got 2 updates per month, but it is already the 20th and we still haven't gotten the 2nd December update. Tuesday is usually the day they post the Gamepass updates but so far nothing today.

overall hours played seems off

So let me get this straight … Phil outplayed @ice on hrs whilst also running Xbox. I’ve put a collection bin near the exit for some of you to return to your Xbot loyalty cards, please form a line.

Makes sense that Phil played so much Vampire Survivors. Very easy game to pick up and play when you just got a little bit of time here and there. Hell, if you go about it efficiently, once you cross like 15 minutes or so in a round, you can put it down and the game will play itself lol.

Mine was the same, hours played seems to be off for sure. I know I spent more than 498 hours playing Xbox games this year, just looking at multiplayer games I would estimate 150+ hours into Overwatch 2 since it released in October, maybe 40 into Halo Infinite early this year before i stopped playing it to wait on more content, 20 into Dead By Daylight, 40 into Fall Guys, and 20 into MultiVersus. So from multiplayer games alone I should be over 250 hours.

Co-Op wise I played through all of It Takes Two, Lego Jurassic World, and TMNT Shredder's Revenge with my sister or people online in TMNT, plus probably 30+ hours of Terraria with my sister.

Going into singleplayer my most played this year was 144 hours in AC Valhalla, while my 2nd most was Far Cry 6 with 60 hours. Plus I played a bunch of other singleplayer games in 2022 including Control with it's DLC's, Saints Row 3 Remaster with its DLC's, Alan Wake's American Nightmare, Trek To Yomi, Final Fantasy 13, Panzer Dragoon Remake, and Guardians of the Galaxy, plus several others which I started but left unfinished including Tunic, Eiyuden Chronicle Rising, Scarlet Nexus, The Good Life, Shedders, Escape Academy, and Deathloop. Also put probably 20 more hours into Cyberpunk 2077 after the big update earlier this year. And I have so far put 13 hours into Wonderlands and 6 hours into Witcher 3 next gen update since starting them both recently.