FTC to Handle U.S. Antitrust Review of Microsoft-Activision Blizzard Deal

[Tsing]

Image: Microsoft



Sources with Bloomberg have learned that the U.S. antitrust review of Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, one of the biggest developers in the gaming industry, will be overseen by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) instead of the Justice Department.



While both agencies bear the responsibility of enforcing the country’s antitrust laws, the FTC has won the privilege of leading the charge on investigating whether the terms of Microsoft’s pricey deal, which is valued at $68.7 billion, might harm competition in the lucrative video games industry.



The proposed acquisition is expected to undergo severe scrutiny based on what the FTC and its chair, Lina Khan, have recently dished out against other corporate giants that have attempted major takeovers.



“FTC Chair Lina Khan has long advocated for a more forceful approach to...

Continue reading...

 

[Grimlakin]

I find it interesting to say the least. MMORPGs need a seamless way to have communication between players and a higher level of anonymity for said players.. area voice chat is almost guaranteed to fail. I think text boxes are still the way to go. But how would that work on a console.

Regardless back on topic here.

Ms buying actibliz could be the healthiest thing for acti bliz. They could core out the rotten parts of the company and reestablish the entity. Put major IPs on life support (wow) and look to a future divested of the negative trappings surrounding the prior with something altogether new. Maybe look to bring back some of the original creative talent and put creative people back in charge. You know like how gm out engineers back in charge and revitalized their brand.

 

[SeymourGore]

I find it interesting to say the least. MMORPGs need a seamless way to have communication between players and a higher level of anonymity for said players.. area voice chat is almost guaranteed to fail. I think text boxes are still the way to go. But how would that work on a console.

I think FF XIV used text for their chat, so text chat isn't unheard of on console. Feels like PSO-style emoji's could also be a good way to communicate in those games too. At least simple communication.

 

[Brian_B]

I find it interesting to say the least. MMORPGs need a seamless way to have communication between players and a higher level of anonymity for said players.. area voice chat is almost guaranteed to fail. I think text boxes are still the way to go. But how would that work on a console.

I'm a big MMO player. You are right, area voice chat has never caught on. But for community events, Voice chat is definitely the standard today, which is much to my dismay, but it hasn't totally replaced text chat in every game. It used to be Teamspeak, then it went to Ventrilo, now it's Discord.

My biggest laments - you can always scroll back up and see anything you might have missed in text, people can't talk over one another in text (the convo can get out of order, but you can parse it back out), you don't have to wait for the idiots that won't shut up to stop talking before you get in your 2c, you don't have to wear a headset or have a keyed mic running, and you don't hear annoying background moms/babies/dogs in text.

XIV does have a very nice auto-chat function. It provides key and common phrases which get translated into whatever localization the client is running, and some include emotes or other animations the characters can take. It's a nice way to help an international game communicate. And they have a distinct graphic chat bubble effect so they can't get spoofed. Phantasy Star Online has a unique one called Symbol Arts that lets you effectively make GIFs