GOAT.

Killer Instinct in 2nd.

Sea of Thieves: Voyage of a Lifetime - YouTube

Sea of Thieves: Voyage of a Lifetime is live! Chart the course of SoT, from earliest prototype to fifth anniversary, and hear from both the people who brought this pirate sandbox to life and the community that calls it home in this heartfelt documentary!

Another Xbox studio documentary.

Inserting a space to break up the run.

Should have used this.

[Killer Instinct 2013] Announcer - COMBO BREAKER ! Sound Effect - YouTube

New legal analysis with some tiny bits of new info:

As Microsoft Corp. hashes out a slew of video game licenses in an effort to appease regulators scrutinizing its plan to buy Activision Blizzard for nearly $70 billion, industry sources believe the Xbox maker's very public strategy to show it doesn't have monopolistic intentions could ultimately seal the megadeal.

Microsoft, advised by Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, agreed to buy Activision Blizzard in January 2022 and now faces a triple threat of regulatory hurdles from European, U.K. and U.S. authorities.

But it will be difficult for any of the regulators to successfully oppose the Activision deal as their arguments about Microsoft monopolizing Activision titles are losing steam in the wake of the licensing deals Microsoft has announced, some attorneys and industry sources believe.

"Microsoft is being very aggressive and proactive in demonstrating that its competition will have access to this very popular game," said Michael Rynowecer, founder and president of legal industry consultancy BTI Consulting Group. "They are trying to send a message that they're not being anti-competitive and that others can use and benefit from the game."

Henry Su, a litigation partner with Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP who focuses on antitrust issues, called the licensing remedies a "good thing" both for market competition and for Microsoft, which will cash in on the agreements as it looks to fund the massive Activision acquisition.

"Microsoft is saying, 'We'll continue to broadly license these titles ... but at the same time this content is going to help us,'" Su said. He said regulators will be closely examining whether the behavioral remedies are "comprehensive enough to address all the scenarios that could come up."

"As Nintendo, Nvidia and others ink deals to maintain access to the Activision catalog, it gets harder for the FTC to show that there's a real risk that Microsoft will use the catalog to squelch competition either in the market for game consoles or the market for game-subscription services," Paul Swanson, a commercial litigation partner at Holland & Hart LLP, said in an email.

Kurt Ma, a corporate partner at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP, agreed and said he expects the licensing measures to help appease all three regulators. He suggested the less stringent EU and U.K. stances haven't been surprising given the current political and economic climate and that the ultimate test will lie in Microsoft's battle with the FTC.

"We have to remember, especially post-Brexit and given the nature of the economy at the moment, that both the EU and the UK are keen to be champions of investment and business," said Ma in an email. "They will be aware that this is the biggest video game M&A deal ever. They will want to be open for business, and be seen to encourage M&A and investment."

Access to Call of Duty is "a valid concern" but "if and when it is properly addressed … there is not much on the competition front that stands in the way" of the transaction being cleared in the EU and the U.K., Ma said.

But Ma said the situation in the U.S. is more delicate amid a virtual standoff between Microsoft and the FTC. "If the EU and the UK approve the deal, Microsoft will be pulling out all the stops to resolve the situation with the FTC," Ma said. "There may be a bit of a domino effect. With so much scrutiny, you may not want to be the last regulator standing."

But if Sony has indeed rejected Microsoft's offer, "the FTC risks looking like it's simply siding with one competitor over another — not preserving competition," said Swanson of Holland & Hart.

BCLP's Ma said Microsoft would have known the licensing measures were going to be necessary before signing the deal as part of the risk-assessment and structuring analysis in any large purchase of this type.

"What Microsoft may not have known, and may be finding out now as it negotiates with the regulators, is the extent to which it needs to implement these measures to satisfy the regulators," he said. "It may be more than Microsoft bargained for."

Source: Idas

Forgot to add that the access remedies to this were also 10 years.

Microsoft should have EU on lockdown at this stage.

I'm feeling more confident about this deal in recent days.

Now Reuters, Lol.

Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) remedies to address European Union antitrust concerns over its $69 billion acquisition of Activision (ATVI.O) focus only on cloud gaming services, with no mention of rival Sony (6758.T), people familiar with the matter said on Monday.

However, the absence of a Sony solution suggests the Commission no longer has concerns about competition in the console market.

The Commission is likely to accept such licensing deals and clear the deal, other people with direct knowledge of the deal have told Reuters, but it is not clear if the UK watchdog will accept such so-called behavioural remedies.