My god the CMA-highlighted views against the deal are so lame

(a) Microsoft is already dominant in PC operating systems, and this Merger is an attempt to gain a similar position in gaming;

• Meanwhile, their OS has lost 15% market share over the last 10 years and has healthier competition than ever since windows is a thing.
• You were lucky Sony, by that logics, when your walkman just trashed the competition you weren't supposed to be able to acquire anything even for other divisions.

(b) Microsoft has the resources to create an offering that competes with PlayStation exclusives without acquiring Activision;

• And it has the resource to create an offering that competes with PlayStation by acquiring Activision so what's the point??
• This is trying to portray acquisition as an evil tool rather than simply a tool. 
• There's no difference to a monopolistic position whether it is achieved through organic growth vs merger acquisition except the latter allows acting in prevention. 

(c ) the Merger would lead to consolidation and would set a harmful precedent in the gaming industry of acquiring large publishers rather than encouraging organic growth;

• The precedent already exists, the size of the acquisition is meaningless, and only the resulting position is important.

(d) this would be the largest merger in gaming history, paving the way for a potential string of future acquisitions of publishers such as Take Two, EA, Ubisoft, thereby increasing concentration in the market;

• Such an obvious slippery slope fallacy
• This deal cannot be blocked because another entity might do one on its own or because MS might intend to do another. Every deal should be reviewed by the same standard and judged on likely outcomes and effects.

(e) Microsoft will make Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox, just as it did with Bethesda after it acquired ZeniMax Media;

• demonstrably false with the legally binding deal made with Nintendo and offered to Sony and Steam
• Demonstrably false with the more adequate Minecraft example.
• Also, not all Zenimax franchises have been announced as exclusive for their next entry (ex: Fallout may still see a new entry on PS)

(f) Microsoft will have the incentive to make Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox post-Merger. This will adversely affect gamers who cannot afford an additional console and they would therefore switch to Xbox at the launch of the next console generation;

• again demonstrably false with the legally binding deal made with Nintendo also offered to Sony and Steam
• Demonstrably false with Minecraft.

(g) Microsoft would be able to deteriorate the quality of Call of Duty games on PlayStation post-Merger, which could cause consumers to switch to Xbox;

• MS could not do this without harming the value of the franchise.
• Demonstrably false with Minecraft.

(h) Microsoft can capture the multi-game subscription market after the Merger because it can afford to add games to Game Pass at a loss;

• Lol Sony and Nintendo have the same capacity in that regards
• GamePass is already profitable, so there's no at a loss title on it, at least no planned ones.

(i) Microsoft is already dominant in cloud gaming, and the Merger could affect the future of new entrants into that space;

• And before MS was dominant in this, Sony was by being the only one of importance to have such a service with PS now.
• already 4 currently competing serious platforms exist (Xcloud, PS Now, Luna, and Geforce now) which make the sector already more competitive than traditional console. or the so-called High-performance console market with only 2 actors.

(j ) the Merger will raise barriers to entry for smaller studios and independent developers; and

• There doesn't seem to be a sound causality here, you would have to explain how.
• Ms with ID@Xbox and GamePass is proving to be a remarkable tool that makes it easier for indie and small studios. 

(k ) the Merger will lead to an increase in Microsoft’s bargaining power in relation to game publishers.

• There doesn't seem to be a sound causality here, you would have to explain how.
• if it's true is it a bad thing? Isn't it just competition at work?
• Isn't Sony enjoying this exact benefice right now.

Yeah, those points against are mostly laughably bad. Quite alot of them can be disproved by anyone with even half a brain cell.

• Of course Xbox has the resources to build up a 1st party that can compete with Sony without acquisitions, but that takes alot more time and carries substantially more financial risk compared to buying already successful developers. Allowing Xbox to acquire a few more publishers and developers is the fastest path to building a market where Sony isn't totally dominant, that is a good thing for everyone if there is closer competition between Xbox and Sony.
• Consolidation of the market is already happening all around us, Tencent, Netease, and Embracer are constantly either acquiring studios or making huge investments in them. Sony has acquired like 6 developers in less than 3 years. But right now the gaming market is far less consolidated that Books, movies, or tv, out of the main entertainment types.
• Saying that it paves the way for more giant publishers to be acquired is silly, the regulators can oversee each attempted publisher acquisition on a case by case basis and block any they think crosses over the point of too much market consolidation, there is no reason to block ABK just to stop a potential deluge of publisher acquisitions by others, just block those future acquisitions if they create problems. 
• Minecraft is precedent that Xbox won't make franchises as large as CoD exclusive, plus they are willing to sign 10 year deals to keep it multiplat. 
• Xbox is not going to start releasing exclusive CoD content or kneecapping CoD performance on PS consoles, Phil has stated many times that he thinks exclusive content is one of the worst practices in the industry, and he has no incentive to damage a big franchise like CoD just to boost Xbox hardware a tiny bit
• PS Now is already the leader in the subscription market, not Gamepass, and Sony could easily stay competitive with an ABK boosted Gamepass if they put their 1st/2nd/3rd party exclusives on there at launch just like Xbox does
• Xbox currently has 3 other big competitors in Cloud gaming, there is no guarantee that ABK alone would be enough for Xbox to dominate the cloud market, it just means they others may need to work a bit harder to keep up, driving competition.
• I don't see how this merger affects indies and new game developers at all
• Sony already has the most bargaining power with 3rd party publishers (it's how they are able to get exclusives and exclusive content and such so easily), how does Xbox catching up to them harm anything? 

Speaking of brain cells.. saw a post in a vgc article that said MS can no longer buy anymore studios. Now I'm sad

(f) Microsoft will have the incentive to make Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox post-Merger. This will adversely affect gamers who cannot afford an additional console and they would therefore switch to Xbox at the launch of the next console generation;

This is funny, oh no, people might switch to Xbox, the horror! This complaint without realising it actually promotes competition, by growing Xbox's userbase and putting it closer to PlayStation that would actually promote competition between the two, but at the end of the day, Microsoft cares more about keeping CoD's massive userbase and money factory alive.

(g) Microsoft would be able to deteriorate the quality of Call of Duty games on PlayStation post-Merger, which could cause consumers to switch to Xbox;

This is a fun complaint aside from the fact that it makes no sense but also because a lot of Minecraft Xbox fans have complained over the years that Minecraft on Xbox Series X is still running the Xbox One version, it has no Series X enhancement, hell, it doesn't even have a Xbox One X enhancement, Lol. There's been very angry Xbox fans for years now that Mojang doesn't feel like an Xbox studio cause they don't prioritise Xbox at all.

(h) Microsoft can capture the multi-game subscription market after the Merger because it can afford to add games to Game Pass at a loss;

This ignores the fact that the streaming market in general is loss-leading, although Microsoft claims Game Pass is profitable, almost every streaming service is losing money at the start, it's a risk vs reward and it isn't illegal for companies to take a loss to grow a business, Lol.

(j) the Merger will raise barriers to entry for smaller studios and independent developers; and the Merger will lead to an increase in Microsoft’s bargaining power in relation to game publishers.

J is complete nonsense based on zero evidence or logical speculation and K is funny considering Sony already has better bargaining power with game publishers than Microsoft does due to their market dominance.

'Organic shrinking' is a good point actually.

I just found the ultimate solution: Microsoft can just pledge to give all future development of Call of Duty titles to 343 Studios, then no one will have to worry about it's impact on the console market from now on.

This is an odd question, but was it ever confirmed if Bethesda games like Starfield would get Xbox integration on Steam? What I mean by that is, if you buy a single player Xbox published game on Steam, like Pentiment and Psychonauts 2, you have the option in the main menu to login to your Xbox account so that you get all the benefits of playing on Xbox, primarily achievements. Since Starfield was Xbox exclusive, I was wondering if it would be getting the same treatment.

I like getting both the Steam and Xbox achievements when playing Xbox games lol

I don't think it has been said one way or the other, but I would assume so if they is how most first-party Xbox titles on Steam do it.

I'm pretty sure it is - EA and Ubisoft does it with their own account systems too.

DA Trilogy finished, unfortunately I had a single achievement lock on me in DA3, so I’ll skip the 4 trail achievements I have left (that require a partial replay) and call it at that. Gonna mop up the last 4 levels I have in the Bridge Constructor Portal DLC then start High on Life.

So no new gamepass additions? Or secret santa additions? or a direct style event coming?