What Microsoft learned here is that they can buy a publisher (Bethesda), make that publisher’s games exclusive, and still get the biggest gaming acquisition in history approved by regulators.
Microsoft are in last place in the gaming industry, so why wouldn’t (and shouldn’t) they be able to buy a publisher? If they were the overwhelming market leader like Sony then there’s not a chance in hell this would get approved…but they’re not. They’re last.
It’s absurd how everyone is now like “this opens the floodgates and means that everyone can buy everyone!”. It means nothing of the sort. If sony were to try and buy EA or Take 2, as people are now suggesting, it would be blocked almost universally because they’re the overwhelming market leader. The companies position in the industry matters. The point is to stop monopolies, and allowing the leader to get bigger goes against that. Allowing the last placed competitor to buy companies doesn’t.
Microsoft are in last place in the gaming industry, so why wouldn’t (and shouldn’t) they be able to buy a publisher? If they were the overwhelming market leader like Sony then there’s not a chance in hell this would get approved…but they’re not. They’re last.
It’s absurd how everyone is now like “this opens the floodgates and means that everyone can buy everyone!”. It means nothing of the sort. If sony were to try and buy EA or Take 2, as people are now suggesting, it would be blocked almost universally because they’re the overwhelming market leader. The companies position in the industry matters. The point is to stop monopolies, and allowing the leader to get bigger goes against that. Allowing the last placed competitor to buy companies doesn’t.