Injunction hearing has been disastrous for Microsoft and destroyed Xbox's remaining reputation

[anonpuffs]

Nothing about it has been "disastrous for Microsoft" because the majority doesn't care what was said in the Injunction hearing.
The majority plays games. They go were the games are. They aren't some hardcore fanboys who are constantly tweeting about "Ponies" and "Xbots" on gaming forums and social media. They will go where the games are.
In the end they will think "Oh, Call of Duty, Diablo, Starcraft, Minecraft, Warcraft, Overwatch, Starfield, Fallout, Indiana Jones, Forza, Halo, Gears, Elder Scrolls, Doom, Wolfenstein, etc. are Xbox & PC exclusive? Let's get an Xbox or a Gaming PC." And that's it. Just like during the Xbox 360 generation. No one cares what Phil Spencer said. Most people in Europe don't even know what an Injunction is, what a CMA/FTC is or that there was a Injunction Hearing with Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard in the USA.

In a few years Microsoft will own 20+ 1st party studios + ZeniMax Media + Activision-Blizzard + Sega. And you can play all their games on Xbox or on a Gaming PC. And you don't have to pay $70 or 80€ for one game. Just pay a few dollars/euros for Game Pass and play all these games immediately.


Sony will be a lot but certainly not a winner. Activision-Blizzard will be a Microsoft company in a few weeks. And after that, MS will go after Sega.
That's not a W for Sony. Rather a big L and a death blow for the PlayStation brand and Sony's ecosystem.

I think it's actually quite likely that the FTC gets its injunction now and ABK walks away after the July deadline and pockets $3b

 

[laynelane]

I feel like I missed so many big ones...

But I guess there was just so much, I had to start somewhere!

I feel like this "evangelize" one should be added to the OP. Not only for what it reveals about MS' mindset, but also because we've seen it play out in real time.

 

[Bryank75]

I feel like this "evangelize" one should be added to the OP. Not only for what it reveals about MS' mindset, but also because we've seen it play out in real time.

Added all the others and credited @Nitro <3

 

[KnittedKnight]

What's is there to say? They fit every caricature definition of an evil corp, perhaps only surparssed by the shenanigans oil/gas companies pull domestically, and specially abroad.

Their mindset is always monopolistic control. It's terrible for any industry they plant foot in. We've always known, but when we look at it in plain detail it's even more disgusting. Out of all the revelations it was the "evangelize hardcore Xbox gamers" revelation that was the most repulsive morally and ethically. Just plain wrong to play with people's minds like that and use them as cannon fodder for a product/company. For those not familiar:

https://icon-era.com/threads/evange...rm-hardcore-xbox-fans-should-evangelize.4554/

No sane and objective hardcore gamer can look at all these revelations and walk away saying: "yeah I want to support that company and that ecosystem." Many in the Xbox ecosystem are fighting with cognitive dissonance right now, attempting to say to themselves that everything here is ok, fine, acceptable, and somehow rationalize a self-interest angle but if they have a brain a tad bigger than a nut they'll understand a corp like MS, once they get what they want aka Sony's PlayStation out of the way... MS will leverage the market and fuck them next with no care in the world. We got a taste of that in the lead up to the launch of the Xbox One when they thought they had Sony's PlayStation down and out (momentum™).... except back then gamers reacted swiftly and went to PlayStation as a safe heaven conservative choice. This shift in strategy is meant to correct that escape route for consumers. If you put your competitor out of business through slow attrition, and aggressive content starvation eventually consumers will have no where to escape to.

Just plain wrong. Fuck Microsoft.

 

[Lord Mittens]

 

[Eternal_Wings]

Yikes this analysis comes by Derek Strickland.
Microsoft could be doomed.

 

[Would_you_kindly]

Microsoft has an army of high paid lawyers on their payroll for this case and they mostly did their job well, casting doubt on the FTC's console foreclosure arguments, throwing a number of red herrings at Judge Corley, who was more than happy to follow them, either because she is out of her depth or because of her conflict of interest. (Her son works for Microsoft)

However no-matter how well the Microsoft lawyers may have performed, they simply couldn't do anything to stop the disclosures required to get this deal through the process. Internal communications, documents, strategy, moral, sentiment and the overall toxic culture of the company have been put on full display.....

Xbox has carefully tried to rebuild their brand since the 2013 launch of the Xbox One, where their anti-consumer policies created a debacle that threw the brand into a tailspin that is still felt to this day.
Since taking over, Phil Spencer has constantly been on the media circuit playing the part of the humble gamer executive, who just wants the best for gamers.... the Xbox community have worshiped him for his constant interaction with the community, playing games with them and appearing on fans youtube shows.
One of his most famous quotes is "When everybody plays, we all win" and he stood on stage with Shawn Layden and Reggie Fils-Aime to promote unity between gamers and brands....

View attachment 1771

Well.... what a crock of shit!

I mean, anyone with half a brain knew he was a snake-oil salesman and that Microsoft was still the toxic company it always had been. But the court drama and badly redacted documents from the past 2 weeks have laid bare how destructive Phil Spencer, Xbox and Microsoft are to gaming as an industry, that they are willing to lay waste to the entire sector as long as they get their way.

A dangerous mix of technical incompetence, where they have not made a decent game or created a successful franchise in more than 15 years and a misplaced disdain or downright hatred for PlayStation along with access now to Microsofts warchest of riches which it seems has been opened not to further the industry or compete in the traditional sense. No, instead it's just easier to buy the industry out.... and so comes our list of incriminating evidence that shows Microsoft isn't in gaming to compete or give customers better value, they are in gaming to monopolize and control it.

• An email written by Matt Booty illustrates their desire to 'Spend Sony out of gaming', note that this was followed by several 3rd party partners of Sony being acquired that year and one of the biggest publishers in the industry being acquired the next year: Zenimax and so on to Activision now.
• The email also exposed several of Phil Spencers lies about Amazon and Google being the main competition for Microsoft going forward.
• A list of about 100 developers and publishers was also published from court documents, this showed that mobile may have been a consideration BUT it was certainly not the main concern.... with tens of console only developers and publishers being considered for acquisitions, including Sony and Nintendo themselves.
• Out of that list Microsoft had gone further and tried to buy Sega and Square and then obviously continued on to Zenimax.... this shows that there is no specific strategy apart from growth by acquisition, growth by taking games away from direct competitors. Growth by offering less choice...contrary to their PR.
• During the acquisition process Phil Spencer guaranteed gamers that IP's would continue to be published where they had an established audience, however emails between Phil Spencer and Microsofts CFO have revealed that the term 'case by case basis' was used as a smokescreen and Phil Spencer had already decided to make all future games exclusive to Xbox and PC, which are both essentially Microsoft platforms.

From Reddit:

• Phil Spencer wanting to make Minecraft exclusive ("When everyone plays, we all win")
• Sensitive Microsoft emails from 2018 forward discussing large scale acquisitions (showing Spencer's excuse for buying ZeniMax to be fiction)
• Xbox's Matt Bootty floating the idea they can spend Sony "out of bussiness" by taking third-party publishers away from them
• Phil Spencer email confirming all major ZeniMax games moving forward games will be blocked from PlayStation. Telling his colleagues "We just can't [come out] and say that." Squirming in court. Not recalling critical exchanges.
• Spencer's email exchanges with Rim Ryan where he refuses to commit to future Activision titles on PlayStation beyond CoD; Ryan coming to the realization Spencer is not a man of his word
• Xbox misrepresenting the CBB and being exposed
• Being criticized for flip-flopping on Xbox's business prospects, depending on who their talking to (Xbox is doomed. Xbox has never been stronger. Xbox is doomed)

• Phil Spencer empowering his disciples: "If we can get them [hardcore Xbox fans] to love it, they will evangelize"; a reference to Microsoft's old astroturfing manual "Evangelism is War".

Credit: @Nitro


This is just the tip of the iceberg and there have been numerous other aspects of Microsofts toxicity and destructive strategy that have been exposed by the FTC vs Microsoft case.

If you would be so kind as to post below more observations that fit with the thread, I will add them and attribute them to the poster.

100% agree bro I used to be a fan of Xbox back in the og & 360 days but I was a kid then & I liked the exclusives didn't really they were buying their way in & not creating anything I really started disliking Xbox properly after they bought Bethesda though because then it became obvious to me what they're doing (I was blind before but now I see)

 

[anonpuffs]

Yikes this analysis comes by Derek Strickland.
Microsoft could be doomed.

Wanna post screenshots? I really don't want to log in to twitter just to read that

 

[laynelane]

I admit some of us, namely me, can get a bit too heated on this subject. Reality is likely not so extreme. At least, I hope so.

 

[Petekilla]

I think it's actually quite likely that the FTC gets its injunction now and ABK walks away after the July deadline and pockets $3b

Nah. If you’ve followed the case. You’ll see that the Judge isn’t giving it to them.

 

[ethomaz]

There is a bit of both sides.

FTC give the feeling of incompetence and with a bit of more work and consistency could had crushed MS.

The others side all the emails and claims showed how low MS can go and most important how they rule the market.

MS exposure in s really telling and why we don’t need they acts in gaming industry.

The question that keep on kind is “can the game industry survive to MS money?”.

 

[Petekilla]

Yikes this analysis comes by Derek Strickland.
Microsoft could be doomed.

Nah. The judge won’t give it to them. She was actually grilling the FTC about many things, if you followed the case. Also her son works for MS.

 

[ethomaz]

Nah. If you’ve followed the case. You’ll see that the Judge isn’t giving it to them.

This… judge is pretty much on MS pocket.

 

[Petekilla]

There is a bit of both sides.

FTC give the feeling of incompetence and with a bit of more work and consistency could had crushed MS.

The others side all the emails and claims showed how low MS can go and most important how they rule the market.

MS exposure in s really telling and why we don’t need they acts in gaming industry.

The question that keep on kind is “can the game industry survive to MS money?”.

Why do you believe the FTC showed incompetence?

 

[anonpuffs]

Nah. The judge won’t give it to them. She was actually grilling the FTC about many things, if you followed the case. Also her son works for MS.

Can you give some examples?

 

[Petekilla]

This… judge is pretty much on MS pocket.

Her son works for MS too. Lol

 

[Lord Mittens]

I admit some of us, namely me, can get a bit too heated on this subject. Reality is likely not so extreme. At least, I hope so.

Haha, I'm just having fun

 

[Petekilla]

Can you give some examples?

She just came across as an out of touch boomer, who didn’t know anything about video games. She was saying ”why the fuss over a shooter game” “why can’t Sony make PS plus better” She didn’t under the ramifications of a huge IP like COD potentially being bought. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/1-judge-grills-ftc-data-013004349.html

 

[Would_you_kindly]

Yeah but I think before, they went unchallenged.... now people can look at the facts from the court, the actual documents and see what is really going on.

But the influencers, media, shills and others on the take from Microsoft are always gonna be a huge issue as long as they make consoles IMO.

Unfortunately I think sony / Nintendo stand a chance against Microsoft when they take their gloves off they're far too wealthy & powerful

Yeah but I think before, they went unchallenged.... now people can look at the facts from the court, the actual documents and see what is really going on.

But the influencers, media, shills and others on the take from Microsoft are always gonna be a huge issue as long as they make consoles IMO.

Unfortunately I don't think sony / Nintendo stand a chance against Microsoft when they take their gloves off this deal is most likely going through imo & with all zenimax & all ABK IPs in their control they'll be in a strong position if you like any of those games (I do doom , quake , spyro , crash , prototype, the evil within , DJ hero etc ) they'll go for the console that has those games playstation will eventually be killed by Microsofts spending (not sure about Nintendo because they seem to be a completely different market)

 

[Eternal_Wings]

I say 50/50. Don’t forget Joe Biden supports Lina Khan. Probably many of you mistaken the couple of senats dogs with actual real politicians like the president. These are nothing but paid lobbyists of Microsoft. Remember CMA? Everyone was like: “Meh CMA gonna approved it”. This judge will need to carefully wage her decision. She works for the government, so will likely not just decide for her litte baby (son). Just wait and then you can celebrate, curse or whatever jeez…