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Ryuu96 on 10 January 2023

Idas said:

I see that the FTC added a summary to the case:

The Federal Trade Commission authorized an administrative complaint against the proposed merger between Microsoft Corp. and Activision Blizzard, Inc., a video game developer that creates and publishes games such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Overwatch. Microsoft sells the Xbox gaming console and also offers a video game subscription service called Xbox Game Pass, as well as a cloud-based video game streaming service. The agency alleges that the deal would enable Microsoft to suppress competitors to its Xbox gaming consoles and its rapidly growing subscription and cloud-gaming business. An evidentiary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 2, 2023 at 10 a.m. ET before an Administrative Law Judge at the FTC's headquarters at 600 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Room 532.

And we finally have the scheduling order for the administrative complaint:

- January 17, 2023: the FTC will provide the preliminary witness list (not including experts)

- January 24, 2023: MS/ABK will provide the preliminary witness list (not including experts)

- February 24, 2023: the FTC will provide the expert witness list

- March 3, 2023: deadline for issuing document requests, interrogatories and subpoenas

- March 10, 2023: MS/ABK will provide expert witness list

And much more key dates from now on until August 2nd 2023.

This is the “result” of the pre hearing from last week.

Looking forward to the those witness lists :p

----

Please...Someone call up Nintendo as a witness



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G2ThaUNiT on 10 January 2023

This is Nintendo currently after being just publicly beaten up through this process



Ryuu96 on 10 January 2023
gtotheunit91 said:

This is Nintendo currently after being just publicly beaten up through this process

The funniest thing about this whole thing is how many strays Nintendo has caught.

Nintendo probably doesn't care though since they're still kicking everyone's ass.

FTC accidentally labelling Nintendo as a monopoly will be quickly forgotten, by the FTC themselves, Lol.



VersusEvil on 11 January 2023

Yeah …. Out of everyone I think Nintendo is the least concerned about what the FTC has said about them lol.



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Shaunodon on 11 January 2023
crissindahouse said:

Xbox PR is truly unbelievable bad. No idea how one of the biggest companies of the planet has worse marketing as your local Pizza delivery service. And that since more than a decade...

Just about had as much as I can take of litigation dumps and gamepass updates. They haven't had a truly big release in over a year and hardly any big news either. Having an Xbox showcase now without a significant look or update on Starfield-- the one thing that's created positive buzz for them in that span; the game people are eagerly waiting for --is about the most asinine thing I can imagine.



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EspadaGrim on 11 January 2023
DroidKnight said:
Ryuu96 said:

 

Not in the games with gold section, but the other weekly sales.  Grabbing the physical instead.

Will likely end up grabbing this, with MS looking to partner up with more Chinese studios I believe that SoftStar is a prime candidate. Both Xuan Yuan 7 and Sword and Fairy: Together Forever were solid first tries in the AAA gaming space and with the right resources they could end up making better games.

https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-5/sword-and-fairy-together-forever

https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/xuan-yuan-sword-7



EspadaGrim on 11 January 2023
Ryuu96 said:

Went back to my old post on this and updated it, Lol.

I know I'm missing a lot of older independent studios but it was mostly focused on the newer ones because I was sick of hearing constant complaining about consolidation or people freaking out whenever a few people leave a studio but now I'm just interested in keeping track of it, Lol. The gaming industry is perhaps one of the easiest industries to go indie in and right now it's easier than ever to secure funding.

Could add a publisher bracket too, Idk.

Not Independent but Not Owned by One of the Major Gaming Publishers

Avalanche Studios (AAA)Owned by Nordisk Film
Archetype Entertainment (AAA)Owned by Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro.
Atomic Arcade (AAA)Owned by Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro.
Invoke Studios (AAA)Owned by Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro.
Skeleton Key (AAA)Owned by Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro.

Nordisk also own SuperMassive Games (Until Dawn/The Quarry) and has a 40% stake in MercurySteam (Castlevania LoS/Metroid Dread who are making a AAA game.

Wizards of the Coast just canned a ton of projects due to money problems so i would be surprised to see some of those AAA teams get shut down.



Machiavellian on 11 January 2023
Shaunodon said:
crissindahouse said:

Xbox PR is truly unbelievable bad. No idea how one of the biggest companies of the planet has worse marketing as your local Pizza delivery service. And that since more than a decade...

Just about had as much as I can take of litigation dumps and gamepass updates. They haven't had a truly big release in over a year and hardly any big news either. Having an Xbox showcase now without a significant look or update on Starfield-- the one thing that's created positive buzz for them in that span; the game people are eagerly waiting for --is about the most asinine thing I can imagine.

I am sure MS will do something with Starfield but every showcase or announcement doesn't have to be about that one game.  I am sure when MS is ready to release a date for Starfield, they will also up the marketing for the game but in the meantime, I would like to see how far the other games in their stable are coming along as well.  I know for myself; I really do not need to see anything about Starfield until the game is ready to be released since I plan to play it.

I think you guys are over hyping a simple direct that is probably geared to give more visibility to smaller titles then the bigger AAA which will have their own marking push.  MS have a lot of games planned for this year and in my opinion, it probably was wise to let a lot of these games more space to hit the ground running then rush them to market.  The problem with overhyping anything is underachieving which causes a worst case scenario all around.  You guys really could use some patience.



Ryuu96 on 11 January 2023
EspadaGrim said:
Ryuu96 said:

Went back to my old post on this and updated it, Lol.

I know I'm missing a lot of older independent studios but it was mostly focused on the newer ones because I was sick of hearing constant complaining about consolidation or people freaking out whenever a few people leave a studio but now I'm just interested in keeping track of it, Lol. The gaming industry is perhaps one of the easiest industries to go indie in and right now it's easier than ever to secure funding.

Could add a publisher bracket too, Idk.

Not Independent but Not Owned by One of the Major Gaming Publishers

Avalanche Studios (AAA)Owned by Nordisk Film
Archetype Entertainment (AAA)Owned by Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro.
Atomic Arcade (AAA)Owned by Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro.
Invoke Studios (AAA)Owned by Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro.
Skeleton Key (AAA)Owned by Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro.

Nordisk also own SuperMassive Games (Until Dawn/The Quarry) and has a 40% stake in MercurySteam (Castlevania LoS/Metroid Dread who are making a AAA game.

Wizards of the Coast just canned a ton of projects due to money problems so i would be surprised to see some of those AAA teams get shut down.

I'll add them both! I'll put MercurySteam in "independent" though because 40% isn't enough for an ownership stake.

Saw that about Wizards, it is unfortunate news but until those studios are confirmed closed I'll keep them for now, I think they'd be insane to shutdown Archetype though, it's their most prestigious studio by far with the talent under it and the one that everyone is looking out for.



Ryuu96 on 11 January 2023

FTC will classify it as not existing.

Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 11 January 2023