Microsoft can now go ahead and close its giant deal.

  • so if we had to pick one,

    Did we, though? Or maybe FTC could prevent further consolidation that will eventually result (and is already) in anticompetitive practices?

    I can only see this as better for competition than Sony running away with the high-end console market, because then there’s realistically only one console to buy.

    So now your choices will be: 1) pick the console that has more of your favorite games, or 2) now you have to buy BOTH consoles.

    Fucking brilliant.

      • Competition means there’s choice. Segregating titles that were once across multiple platforms (choice) into individual platforms (no choice) is anti-competitive.

        I can’t really break it down more than that and I thought this was obvious…

        • You do have choice. You have choice between group of exclusives A and group of exclusives B. It’s better for competition but worse for the consumer. In order for it to be better for the consumer and competition, you’d need to eliminate the concept of exclusives entirely. And I’m all for that, but I don’t know how to make that happen.

      • Microsoft creates demand for their system largely by buying up publishers and turning all their future games exclusive, that would otherwise have been multiplatform.

        Sony and Nintendo create demand for their system largely by making great games in house, that otherwise never would have existed.

        So yes you’re right but one is much shittier than the other.

        • The games made in house are functionally identical to buying a studio that already existed. It’s a game that can’t be played anywhere else for arbitrary business reasons. I’d consider Sony’s shittier, because I have to wait two years for a PC port, and Nintendo’s shittier still because those games will never legally leave their platform.