Her comparison of GOW to COD was flawed:
Her overall point that there are other successfuly series than COD stands, Ragnarok made like $0.5B in revenue in 10 days. COD is definitely not essential input, but the methodology to show it could be better.
I donāt believe she gave any determination or answer to how the bundles were distributed. I thought she said she didnāt know and only could give an anecdotal story.
I see what you mean regarding COD vs GOW and youāre not wrong. I just donāt think she was taking just that data into account. At least, thatās not how I understood how the data was being represented. IIRC there were other games on the list of new console owners during that time, itās just the correlation between GOW and COD were the most fascinating because both had bundles and both were heavily pushed by Sony. I could be remembering some things wrong though.
I think overall she presented her findings rather well. Of course that was with the MS attorney. So the real test will be when the FTC attorney cross exams her. Considering what weāve seen from them in the past hearings though, Iām not expecting miracles or any big gotchas.
The FTC needed him to pull through because even if they can convince the judge that MS will foreclose CoD, something they have not done really, they then have to convince the judge that it will cause immediate harm to competition. Judging from the reactions, he really did not convince the judge it seems.
So is it correct that two more days of this and then we get the final ruling next week? So we highly likely will hear if ABK goes to Microsoft, or not? Thatās exciting.
Only one more day of actual witnesses as far as I know. Thursday is closing arguments (anyone feel free to correct me if I am wrong), then the decision can come any time after.
Something tells me it wont take the judge longā¦
But I wouldnāt expect it until after the July 4th holiday.
Then MS cant close till five days after the PI is denied.
At this point Im about 95% convinced MS is going to close over the CMA duento international comity
MW2 and Ragnarok came out around the same time and were the two biggest games when they launched, but comparing their performance in their launch period doesnāt tell the full story.
Regardless, Leeās report and testimony were even more problematic and you could poke a thousand more holes in it than the Microsoft lawyer did. One of my problems with it was that while he refused to call exclusives inherently exclusive claiming that they might be pro-competitive in some cases, he claimed that any for of exclusivity of ABKās content on Xbox would be āforeclosure of it rivalsā.
Admitting to inserting random ass values into his model and drawing conclusions from it was something else tho.
Howd it go today? It seemed like a bloodbath on twitter and message boards. However journalists seem to be reporting an even match.
Which journalists? So that I know who to avoid in the future.
There was nothing even about it, in boxing terms think of it like a retired Ali vs a prime Tyson
Both Jim and their star witness basically said everything that goes against the CMA/FTCās issues with the deal
The only one I see is that Derek Strickland dude whos anti Microsoft
Also Tae Kim but i dont consider either of these guys journalist and more like clout chasers and engagement farmers
I hope he is good at his normal job. I doubt his expertise in the video game market. And i have read (too much) of his model of ps2/gamecube/xbox gen. This guy implemented a very questionable statistical model with downright absurd conclusions. And now he talks about a unicorn game like CoD, when in his original study he modeled Halo like every other f*** game. This is all useless.
Thank god the judge is really smart.
lmao
That dude makes other Playstation fanboys look sane, heās not a journalist
Right, Derek Strickland more than anything is am engagement farmer that says anything to get clicks and engagement
Tae Kim is pure poison, like Red Dragon level
Pretty brutal for the FTC again, no real āwinsā, the Nvidia part was probably their strongest play. Microsoft destroyed every argument and made Robin Lee (FTCās key witness) question himself so much that heās probably still shaking!
Now that we now there is a HUGE list of potential acquisitions after ABK I canāt wait to see what comes next.