I don’t get the logic that Microsoft has to fight the ruling even if they know they are going to lose.
All they can do is struggle and cost the CMA money if losing is inevitable. The CMA isn’t a business, doesn’t have shareholders and the people who work at it don’t get paid based on cost savings. Frankly, I doubt the CMA gives a damn how expensive or time consuming Microsoft makes an appeal.
Government regulators have nothing but time and money, there’s no disincentive that Microsoft provides by appealing. So I don’t see why they’d bother unless they think they have a chance of winning.
Not sure whether Microsoft thinks they have a slam dunk chance on appeal, a snowballs chance in hell or somewhere in-between. From my perspective if they decided to appeal its because whatever chance they have of winning is worth it to them to spend the cash and time. Because Microsoft isn’t the government and do have to justify to shareholders why they are doing something.
I figure Microsoft will start the appeal process now and if the EU allows it to pass they’ll fight the CMA using whatever arguments worked for the EU. If the EU denies it they’ll reevaluate again and only continue if they see a credible path forward with the CMA and EU, which seems a lot less likely to me.
On the Brad Smith comments people are being hyperbolic and needlessly sensitive. Businesses, industry groups, regulators and governments criticize each other (and praise each other for that matter) all the time. Trying to pass of Smith’s comments as particularly unique and an example of Big Tech being out of control is just silly. No one was freaking out when Jim Ryan called the CMA irrational for dropping the console SLC, at least not the UK government and national publications like The Guardian. Why? Because it wasn’t even news, it was expected, a matter of common course. Why did Smith get such an immediate and aggressive reaction? Because he touched a nerve. In 2023 the UK is a shell of its former self with most of its international clout coming from an Empire that hasn’t existed in any practical sense for nearly 80 years. The UK almost regardless of political persuasion see themselves as a world power when realistically, outside of a preferential EU position they gave up, a nuclear arsenal and a UN seat they only secured with an empire that no longer exists they are a middle power at best. Smith said the quiet bit out loud and that upset people.
I think people saying this acquisition is why or part of the reason Microsoft isn’t delivering the quantity or quality of games expected consistently are scapegoating. Microsoft basically shutdown Xbox first party. Disassembled most of it, overproduced and mismanaged what was left. They started reinvesting in 2018 but it takes big established studios time to release even sequels. Sony released God of War in 2018 and followed it up in 2022. 4 years for an established studio to make a simple sequel. Microsoft was never going to buy studios like Obsidian, let them finish supporting current projects, scale them up, produce a new AAA IP and score a direct hit in 4-5 years. Even where they acquired bigger studios they all had projects to finish and support and some of them, like Playground are trying to do a franchise revival in a new to them genre. If MGS releasing multiple well received AAA titles a year, consistently, year over year matters to you I doubt we’ll even see it until near the end of the current generation.
