Originally published at: Call of Duty to come to Game Pass, confirming the worst about the Activision-Microsoft merger | Boing Boing
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But Atari is still due for a major comeback any year now, right?
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They’ve got a new 2600 cart coming out soon, so maybe?
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- Don’t and have never played CoD, so I don’t have a dog in that fight.
- I think it’s a bit too early to discuss monopolization of the streaming market (Steam, Nintendo, Sony, various mobile ‘streaming’ modalities, and whatever else exists in foreign markets).
Streaming in other media has largely become more competitive. Microsoft is simply following the streaming cable/tv model of ‘bundling’ services (for now). - XBOX will have market dominance in US & Europe for streaming at the outset (I’m unsure of how foreign – Asia, Africa, Australia, South America – streaming for games stands).
- As an Xbox person, 've gone decades now missing out on GotY contenders/winners that were Sony exclusives.
Yes, all major game consoles have exclusives, but Sony has simply dominated the exclusives market.
And Sony has trounced Xbox sales for decades. Sony, in fact, has a whopping console dominance.
I see this heading, potentially, to where Amazon is now in regards to FTC and lawsuits over monopolization versus extremely unfair and/or illegal and certainly competition-neutering business practices.
That is, if XBox over-leverages its current streaming dominance and game-pass bundling advantage, making gains on or cutting into Sony’s dominance of consoles while whittling away Sony’s CoD dominance (which isn’t guaranteed…yet?), then I see MicroSoft/Xbox getting hauled up before Euro and US and Japanese, etal courts to either diversify, spin-off**, or sell assets.
**either in part (spin of CoD as it’s own streaming company) or in whole (GamePass Ltd) in much the way Google spins off some of it’s businesses.
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As part of the deal ABK streaming rights go to UbiSoft. Not sure if that’s just regional for EU or UK for the approval there or global
Lawyer Wife taught me an actual legal standard: a moron in a hurry. Only a moron in a hurry couldn’t see that this was the inevietable outcome of the merger.
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it doesn’t really matter in the analysis what was only what will be. it does however show motivation. and i think that’s why microsoft wants to buy out the competition. instead, they should be forced to compete by making new alternatives
monopoly analysis is done before purchase rather than after. waiting till after means the damage has already been done.
re, streaming: i don’t think that’s the issue. it’s that they will leverage cod, diablo, etc to create their monopoly. if nobody had streaming, this would still be monopoly making
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Who knows where things will lead, but can’t I at least allow myself a little glow of consolation that the slimy frat-boy culture of Activision will be burnt away in the corporate gut of Microsoft until nothing remains but a bunch glossy, stone-like brands in it’s craw?
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You really registered to post this banality?
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and yet, many people disagree with you.
they have a different take then my own – but the merging of two mega-publishers isn’t going to do anyone any good.
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We wait on tenterhooks to learn what it is about you that makes you not just another purely speculating uneducated individual.
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I have a feeling he’s not going to be around long enough for us to find out 
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Say what now? I don’t think this means what you think it means.
Activision is a huge game studio but it’s one of dozens. Buying Sony would be far more monopolistic.
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i think this is the part causing confusion
In economics, a monopoly is a single seller. In law, a monopoly is a business entity that has significant market power, that is, the power to charge overly high prices
on console, mobile, arguably streaming, and definitely publishing ms will have an outsized advantage and will definitely be able to push retail pricing ( and developer payouts ) around
they already can a bit i think. this will help them. and they don’t really have to own the whole gaming market to do it. the biggest titles, and the furthest reach will be enough
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I wonder that so many people have felt the need to create an account just to tell the OP that he’s wrong. We don’t get that much first post activity on other subjects.
Maybe there really is just this deep underswell of concern for ethics in gaming journalism.
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Sometimes we do… but not often…
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You leave my ilk out of this!
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did someone say elk?!
(okay. that might be a deer )
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