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Comment by haunter | Hacker News Reader

Ah yeah bust Disney buying up everything was okay?

Also if not Microsoft then a chinese corp will buy Blizz, for example Tencent. But I guess that would be okay

Merely because one questionable thing happened doesn't mean other questionable things are excused. We don't need to embrace a race to the bottom.

During the Fox acquisition by Disney, the FTC was majority Republican. It is now majority Democrat. Elections matter!

And Ticketmaster merged with Live Nation under the Obama admin. Elections matter!

The action in this case is less about the party in power than in the individuals involved. The FTC has been sleepwalking for decades. Biden appointed an FTC chairperson who has the reputation of being an anti-trust bulldog and appears to be committed to actually putting some teeth in the regulations. She can't especially go back in time, but she can certainly take action on what's upcoming.

The Disney buyouts were made under a very different FTC and also a very different political climate. As well as a more naive view on monopolies by many in the regulatory/political sphere.

This move away from the consumer harm standard is recent and the new FTC chair is committed to making sure we go back to the old days of Anti-Trust.

The thing is, in the world of gaming, Microsoft buying games studios is making it less of a mononpoly. Sony has tons of solid PS exclusive because of their studios. Microsoft starts to make similar like moves and all of a sudden it's monoploy problem. WTF.

I suppose if you count Windows, Microsoft has captured way more of the market than Sony? Comes down to how the market and what (constitutes a monopoly) is defined though.

What studios has Sony acquired that are in the same ballpark as Activision? They are pretty huge. Are there any? Genuine question.

As huge as Activision. None. But https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Studios they have lots of medium size ones.

I agree with this comment. I have no problems with Microsoft getting blocked, but disallow others also. Don't let Disney, Tencent or Apple, or some 3rd party then do the exact same thing.

> Ah yeah bust Disney buying up everything was okay?

What has Disney bought up during the current administration?

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