1st February 2022, 6:44 AM
(This post was last modified: 1st February 2022, 6:47 AM by Dark Jaguar.)
ABF, it leads closer and closer to a monopoly, and in the past, that was enough. They used to break up companies for far less.
If you don't think that what MS is doing, and in a bigger sense what Disney HAS been doing, is monopolistic, I don't know what you consider a monopoly. Are we supposed to blithely accept every last step on the way towards a monopoly except for that very last merger at the very end of the chain, or should we, perhaps, recognize a trend and cut it off before it reaches that desperate point? What exactly do you think anti-monopoly laws are for?
Sony can say all they want. You may not have read it, but MS said exactly the same things about their acquisition of both Zenimax and Activision Blizzard. They ALSO claimed that they'd let "certain" series stay multiplatform, such as the Calls of Duties. It might even be true for a little bit. But that's the thing, they're lying. Sony is ALSO lying. It's just not immediately obvious that they did. At best, what they've promised is that the games that these companies already released on multiple consoles will not be retroactively pulled from said consoles and their online services will remain up. That's... not the most convincing thing. MS and Sony "aren't running a charity here!", to quote 90's business villains. If you don't believe they have every intention of reneging on their words in a few years, you're naïve.
If you don't think that what MS is doing, and in a bigger sense what Disney HAS been doing, is monopolistic, I don't know what you consider a monopoly. Are we supposed to blithely accept every last step on the way towards a monopoly except for that very last merger at the very end of the chain, or should we, perhaps, recognize a trend and cut it off before it reaches that desperate point? What exactly do you think anti-monopoly laws are for?
Sony can say all they want. You may not have read it, but MS said exactly the same things about their acquisition of both Zenimax and Activision Blizzard. They ALSO claimed that they'd let "certain" series stay multiplatform, such as the Calls of Duties. It might even be true for a little bit. But that's the thing, they're lying. Sony is ALSO lying. It's just not immediately obvious that they did. At best, what they've promised is that the games that these companies already released on multiple consoles will not be retroactively pulled from said consoles and their online services will remain up. That's... not the most convincing thing. MS and Sony "aren't running a charity here!", to quote 90's business villains. If you don't believe they have every intention of reneging on their words in a few years, you're naïve.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)