It has been interesting to see people who once was insistent that Microsoft cannot skirt round the CMA and close without their approval start to come to the realisation that this may indeed happen.
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At this point it comes down to what’s cheaper for Microsoft - to eat the fines from the UK government or to pay higher price for ABK in case the deal is extended.
Do we know who will be talking today?
They will finish up the Microsoft economic expert, then Satya Nadella and Bobby Kotich
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I’m still a bit in disbelief the FTC hired this economist. He designed a model for market share and movements where every game is the same but argues in a case where CoD is a unicorn. Of course his reasoning is wrong.
This is one of his conclusions for PS2 gen if PS2 had no exclusives but Gamecube and XB got them all:
In the first specification when only the PS2 loses its exclusive titles, both entrant platforms gain total and hit titles, and sell an additional 5 percent hardware consoles combined; the PS2 sells 3 percent fewer consoles
???
Really?
The PS2 gets no GTA, no Metal Gear, no Final Fantasy, no Tekken and only sells 3 percent fewer consoles? Who believes this? Who writes this with a straight face?
Am i reading this paper wrong or what?
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Kotick → MS expert → Nadella
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I value my time too much to listen to it. I don’t know enough about US law to make it worthwhile either. Those that know seem to all agree this has been disastrous for the FTC’s case.
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Can you listen to the proceedings after the fact, or are they one and done?
Eh. People been saying the effects of exclusives are generally overstated. His numbers might be on the other end of the spectrum though.
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Yeah I’m noticing that already. Those people are already coming around and acting like we didn’t all notice thier 10,000 posts saying the exact opposite 
So apparently his theory on the exclusivity part was that Gamecube & Xbox had better exclusives, so having no exclusives on any platform benefitted the PS while hurting the 2 others. Interesting enough theory, but it’s also kind of saying that timing would matter so it becomes almost impossible to predict what would happen at any given time without advance knowledge of how every single exclusive will sell. No wonder so much of his analysis was just guessing.
Edit: Also - he called the game cube an entrant & the PS an incumbent - probably because the console launched the year earlier, but calling Nintendo an entrant when they had had previous consoles & would have had name recognition as a result is kind of a weird take as well.
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Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War is coming to Playstation Plus in July…
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Can anyone confirm if this was said? Because this guy supposively also said that the results of yesterday where neutral, when anyone with common sense could tell it went badly for the ftc lawyer.
Whats their record like?
Pretty reliable
So far best “insider” to count on. So yeah, the timing is rather amazing.
That would be a really crappy thing for ATVI to do while the deal is pending, it would defeat several of their own statements about subscription services
I think she was referring to FF franchise.
So FF15 was there, but FF16 now isn’t.
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Treyarch CoD has been coming to PS Plus for a while now. It’s likely contract thing.
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