Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard King for $69 Billion on 2023-10-13

[Deleted member 11852]

Perhaps so and that's why it's being raised now, but I find that hard to believe. MS was okay getting Japanese content for XB360. If they then felt a change and devs were declining that, they must have been able to get a sense of why from contacts. I won't say it's impossible and hopefully the industry will be fairer overall when this settles, but based on my current limited perception I continue to struggle to understand a world where MS was getting exclusive content, then not, yet being clueless why as Sony was blocking them from the shadows. Certainly I'm not taking either side's story at face value!

The issue of media exclusivity (or 'preferred licensing terms') is probably not going to change because the lobby who want to keep certain content exclusive, be it TV, movies or music, will ensure it stays that way. The argument for games being considered different from other media really only supports allowing platform exclusivity because it does actually cost most to put a game on additional platforms because development, testing and support come with real costs - unlike music, TV and movies which gave fixed production costs, and only revenue and profit streams differ.

It's baffling that eleven senators are making the argument that exclusive content is endemic of anti-competitive behaviour when all three hardware manufacturers in the console industry have engaged in this practice for as long as they have been in it. So the narrative from Hoeg law that Sony have "set themselves up" applies equally to Microsoft who who the first manufactures have a Call of Duty exclusivity market deal.

 

[see colon]

If Sony has been engaging in anticompetitive behaviour in Japan, MS neds to raise this with their regulators. And should have been raising it when it was apparent it was happening.

Maybe the extent of the Sony behavior was not revealed until the discovery processes in the regulatory reviews of this MS/ABK acquisition.

The digital trade agreement that's cited in the complaint is one that was negotiated in 2019, took effect in 2020 and was expanded upon in 2022 IIRC. People who were watching American politics during the 2016 election will remember that the Obama administration had negotiated a free trade agreement with several Asian countries called the TPP. One of the things Trump ran on was pulling out of TPP, which he did. He then renegotiated a deal with Japan with a much more limited scope, but one of the areas was digital trade. The Biden administration expanded on that deal in 2022, and it might not have taken effect until 2023. What Sony is accused of can only have had happened in the recent past, because the trade deals didn't exist before 2020.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

When you have hundreds of employees speaking ill of him in social media, thousands signing a petition for his removal and trying to unionize then definitely something is wrong.

What were they saying?

 

[Nesh]

What were they saying?

I cant find the twitts and I dont remember exactly what they were saying bexcause its been probably 2 years already.
But if you are a good CEO you wouldnt be getting this: https://www.wired.com/story/activision-blizzard-employees-done-with-ceo-bobby-kotick/#:~:text=More than 150 people gathered,joined the protest remotely by

The bastard fired 800 employees while he got a bonus of 200 Million. I ve read somewhere that the cost of salaries to his employees were around 30 million. Imagine! A single person. Getting 200 Million. Bonus! On top of his salary. Which is 9 times the salaries of your employees combined. While firing 800 people.
Also this:

Report: Activision's Bobby Kotick Didn't Just Know, He Also Was Shitty To Women [Update]

Call of Duty studios Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games are at the center of new allegations

kotaku.com

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick Knew for Years About Sexual-Misconduct Allegations at Videogame Giant

The top executive didn’t inform the board of directors about some reports, including alleged rapes. The company is facing multiple regulatory investigations.

www.wsj.com

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Can anybody else who has read the Japan-US Digital Trade Agreement, explain how applies? Buying games from Microsoft or Sony is local commerce. If you're in the US and buy a game from Sony, you're not trading with Japan (what the agreement covers). Likewise, when you're in Japan and you buy a game from Microsoft you're not trading wit the USA.

The agreement is targeting parity and equitable rules for international services. Do US Senators actually understand this? Hong's Law also skipped over it entirely.

 

[BRiT]

Not directly related, but some CMA adjacent material. They lost to Apple on procedural merits.

---

The @CMAgovUK lost in court. #Apple appealed on procedural grounds. The #CMA exceeded time limits: https://catribunal.org.uk/judgments/157661223-apple-inc-others-v-competition-and-markets-authority-judgment-31-mar-2023…

The issues--mobile browser engines and cloud gaming--are very important. It would have been great for the CMA to open the market. But it made some mistakes.

In January I wrote: "Apple's appeal on procedural grounds is not unreasonable" and "For as much as I'd like to see the CMA fend off this challenge to its MIR decision, this appeal could go either way." It went Apple's way, unfortunately. http://fosspatents.com/2023/01/apple-apparently-argues-shall-means.html…

https://twitter.com/x/status/1642064243141820417

 

[Shifty Geezer]

On grounds of protocol though.

 

[BRiT]

On grounds of protocol though.

Yeah. Just goes to show how bureaucratic things can be.

Does anyone know if they can redo everything again to reach a new decision that didn't run afoul of procedural issues? Or is there some sort of Double Jeopardy rule preventing that?

 

[Johnny Awesome]

I cant find the twitts and I dont remember exactly what they were saying bexcause its been probably 2 years already.
But if you are a good CEO you wouldnt be getting this: https://www.wired.com/story/activision-blizzard-employees-done-with-ceo-bobby-kotick/#:~:text=More than 150 people gathered,joined the protest remotely by

Also this:

Report: Activision's Bobby Kotick Didn't Just Know, He Also Was Shitty To Women [Update]

Call of Duty studios Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games are at the center of new allegations

kotaku.com

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick Knew for Years About Sexual-Misconduct Allegations at Videogame Giant

The top executive didn’t inform the board of directors about some reports, including alleged rapes. The company is facing multiple regulatory investigations.

www.wsj.com

So all of this stuff is just allegations really with no proof?

 

[Nesh]

So all of this stuff is just allegations really with no proof?

So what do you think happened? They made everything up?

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Does anyone know if they can redo everything again to reach a new decision that didn't run afoul of procedural issues? Or is there some sort of Double Jeopardy rule preventing that?

No, they cannot. If a decision is invalidated because it was effectively unlawful, i.e. it took longer than the legislation permits Government to make decisions, then it stands unless the reason for the overrun was one or more parties demonstrably sabotaging the process by knowingly providing inaccurate or conflicting information or maliciously flooding the regulator with pointless documents

There are several provisions built into processes which is set out in the underlying legislation that permits several short extensions only if all parties agree.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

So what do you think happened? They made everything up?

Hard to say. That's why there is a justice system.

 

[Nesh]

Hard to say. That's why there is a justice system.

Easy for you to say. Also there was an inner settlement with undisclosed details.

 

[SmooTh]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1643254953748713474

 

[BRiT]

Related to the earlier US Congress and Japan Trade violations of the IPEF:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1643278686919983105

 

[iroboto]

Related to the earlier US Congress and Japan Trade violations of the IPEF:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1643278686919983105

Yep, there it is.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Related to the earlier US Congress and Japan Trade violations of the IPEF:

Their argument doesn't seem at all valid at a cursory glance though. Are any US software companies impacted by these practices as they claim? AFAICS, no, indeed some taking advantage of the would be exclusivity deals. I guess some indies making XB exclusives will see reduced sales due to no XB market in Japan. Steam Deck is reportedly selling fine in Japan, and Apple continues to sell well and offers a gaming platform. The only US company impacted would be MS, and there are good arguments that their 20 years of investment there has been pretty shoddy at times.

That's not to say Sony may be acting unfairly and they should be scrutinised for fair practice, but the argument presented here seems somewhat exaggerated to me to make a far broader case than actually exists.

 

[BRiT]

That's not to say Sony may be acting unfairly and they should be scrutinised for fair practice, but the argument presented here seems somewhat exaggerated to me to make a far broader case than actually exists.

Did you look into or see how some games were excluded only in the Japan region, while versions exist outside that region?

 

[BRiT]

Some info for CMA Proceedings:

The @CMAgovUK has set a filing deadline: April 12 = final deadline for all parties’ responses/submissions. The deadline for the final report on the #Microsoft-#ActivisionBlizzard merger is still April 26.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1643584671987507200

 

[SmooTh]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1643709568097157122