Company repeatedly found guilty of anti-competition behaviour complains after being told no by independent Competition and Market Authority.
couldnt be arsed either way as long as i can still play ufc
Consolidation in the games industry has been hugely detrimental to creativity and variety, and quality. Just look at companies like Bioware for examples.
I worked as an UI animator in the Game industry in early 2000’s pre dlc and app stores. Mainly for independent developers. The UK scene was small and controlled by the big 20 or so publishers and distributors globally as buyers, with PAL and NTSC regional distribution in the mix.
It’s was horrific, every 12 months due to lack of business everyone would be looking for a new job or being made redundant because of Ip not being released from publishers or them not taking on brand new IP and re hashing old games.
App stores, faster internet and dlc changed this for the better- you can publish games on multiple platforms and devices, there is zero barrier to market for independent developers; bar dev cost and marketing. It’s fucking great and a golden age of gaming.
Microsoft I believe, have seen the way movie/tv streaming has become like cable used to be 20 years ago (multiple expensive subscriptions to multiple services) and want to consolidate and control the majority of IP in gaming and push their own platform.
Less competition, more control – it’s bad for independence and bad for anyone trying to create originality in game content and starts again a barrier to market.
It makes me angry that people are happy to support monopolisation in the industry just to get a few more games on Game Pass. I have a Series X, I have Game Pass, I still don’t want Microsoft dominating the space. Competition is what *created* Game Pass. Does anyone seriously thing that as soon as they control more and more of the industry that the price of Game Pass won’t rocket? The point of stopping this merger is to pre-empt a monopoly *before* it even happens. You only have to look around at the state of other industries to see how fast monopolies happen and how impossible they are to break apart once there.
Also, when has Microsoft gobbling up game companies *ever* paid off the for the Consumer? We’ve lost so much creativity and innovation because Microsoft cannibalised companies and then did nothing with them. Lionhead, Rare being the two most important examples. If Microsoft really cared about competition and consumers they would have supported these companies growth instead of snapping them up, underutilising then or having no clue how to use them, and then shutting them down for underperforming. Tough fucking luck Microsoft – go get one of your existing developers to build a game for once instead of brute forcing your way to dominance.
This is going to be funny if the EU also says no.
But seriously, I wouldn’t have gone with the cloud as reasoning, but putting too much together is a danger to the industry.
Coming from the people who made brexit happen, I can’t say I have confidence in their reasoning.
*edit
Since it looks like a bunch of morons don’t understand English well enough, “coming from the people who made brexit happen” refers to the government, not the agency which blocked the deal.
8 comments
[deleted]
Company repeatedly found guilty of anti-competition behaviour complains after being told no by independent Competition and Market Authority.
couldnt be arsed either way as long as i can still play ufc
Consolidation in the games industry has been hugely detrimental to creativity and variety, and quality. Just look at companies like Bioware for examples.
I worked as an UI animator in the Game industry in early 2000’s pre dlc and app stores. Mainly for independent developers. The UK scene was small and controlled by the big 20 or so publishers and distributors globally as buyers, with PAL and NTSC regional distribution in the mix.
It’s was horrific, every 12 months due to lack of business everyone would be looking for a new job or being made redundant because of Ip not being released from publishers or them not taking on brand new IP and re hashing old games.
App stores, faster internet and dlc changed this for the better- you can publish games on multiple platforms and devices, there is zero barrier to market for independent developers; bar dev cost and marketing. It’s fucking great and a golden age of gaming.
Microsoft I believe, have seen the way movie/tv streaming has become like cable used to be 20 years ago (multiple expensive subscriptions to multiple services) and want to consolidate and control the majority of IP in gaming and push their own platform.
Less competition, more control – it’s bad for independence and bad for anyone trying to create originality in game content and starts again a barrier to market.
It makes me angry that people are happy to support monopolisation in the industry just to get a few more games on Game Pass. I have a Series X, I have Game Pass, I still don’t want Microsoft dominating the space. Competition is what *created* Game Pass. Does anyone seriously thing that as soon as they control more and more of the industry that the price of Game Pass won’t rocket? The point of stopping this merger is to pre-empt a monopoly *before* it even happens. You only have to look around at the state of other industries to see how fast monopolies happen and how impossible they are to break apart once there.
Also, when has Microsoft gobbling up game companies *ever* paid off the for the Consumer? We’ve lost so much creativity and innovation because Microsoft cannibalised companies and then did nothing with them. Lionhead, Rare being the two most important examples. If Microsoft really cared about competition and consumers they would have supported these companies growth instead of snapping them up, underutilising then or having no clue how to use them, and then shutting them down for underperforming. Tough fucking luck Microsoft – go get one of your existing developers to build a game for once instead of brute forcing your way to dominance.
This is going to be funny if the EU also says no.
But seriously, I wouldn’t have gone with the cloud as reasoning, but putting too much together is a danger to the industry.
Coming from the people who made brexit happen, I can’t say I have confidence in their reasoning.
*edit
Since it looks like a bunch of morons don’t understand English well enough, “coming from the people who made brexit happen” refers to the government, not the agency which blocked the deal.