[UltraViolence]

That Microsoft is going to abuse its ownership of Activision is a certainty. They've already proclaimed they will only keep certain franchises on PlayStation for several more years after the merger succeeds.

This merger needs to be stopped dead in its tracks. If competition authorities allow this merger they're factually legalizing market abuse.

[chrisfosterelli]

It's a very ironic argument from the platform that most aggressively pursues exclusives IMO. They frequently negotiate timed exclusive deals even with multiplatform games or negotiate clauses that forbid smaller game studios from publishing on Microsoft's Game Pass. MS has been criticized for years for having comparatively poor exclusives, and they try to fix it to find their primary competitor cries murder.

[Victerius]

Counterpoint 1: The low barriers to entry of the video game industry make it easy for new players to disrupt the space if Microsoft wants to abuse its position.

Counterpoint 2: The product is video games at the end of the day. It's not exactly as important as life saving drugs or internet service providers, where antitrust resources are more needed. There is an unlimited number of ways for consumers to entertain themselves.

[sofixa]

> The low barriers to entry of the video game industry make it easy for new players to disrupt the space if Microsoft wants to abuse its position.

Low barrier to entry? Have you seen how many years of development it takes to develop a modern AAA or even AA game?

[UltraViolence]

So we should allow market abuse just because it isn't of vital importance? Me thinks not.

[scarface74]

So does PlayStation release all of its IP on Xbox?

[kotaKat]

No, and if I want to develop for Playstation I have an immense gatekeeping process, ten times worse than developing for Xbox or even Nintendo.

[ekianjo]

Sony could also decide, God forbid, to compete in terms of first party games development.

Gotta love how everyone jumps on the regulatory block train.

[fabian2k]

Sony is very competitive in terms of first-party games, multiplayer shooters are maybe a special case. For single player story-heavy games Sony studies are probably the largest developers and publisher.

Multiplayer games compete more directly, and you need to get a large enough playerbase to make them attractive. Which puts large, established franchises in a much better position than new and unknown ones.

[dclowd9901]

System exclusives have never been viewed as anticompetitive, and for the life of me, I can’t figure on why.

[theturtletalks]

Commenters are pointing to Sony’s acquisition of Bungie as a justification for this merger to go through.