Microsoft Fire IdTech Team at Id Software

Re:Microsoft Fire IdTech Team at Id Software by SurgeArrest on Tuesday July 07, 2026 @12:09PM (#48819790)

Microsoft EEE at its best: gobble up all game studios and then kill them.

Microsoft needs to be split, it should been split years ago, but now more than ever.

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Re:Microsoft Fire IdTech Team at Id Software by pfdietz on Tuesday July 07, 2026 @12:14PM (#48819880)

> at its best

This looks more like simple corporate incompetence. They never should have made those very expensive acquisitions.

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Re:Microsoft Fire IdTech Team at Id Software by thewebguyd on Tuesday July 07, 2026 @12:41PM (#48820267)

They should never have been allowed to make those acquisitions. Especially after they misled the FTC about Activision/Blizzard remaining independent and easily spun off again, and then immediately fired 1900 people afterwards forcing them to integrate more tightly into Microsoft gaming.

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Re:Microsoft Fire IdTech Team at Id Software by pfdietz on Tuesday July 07, 2026 @02:51PM (#48821958)

The FTC isn't there to stop corporations from making mistakes.

Subsequent events show concerns of monopolization were misplaced.

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Re:Microsoft Fire IdTech Team at Id Software by embedding-shape on Wednesday July 08, 2026 @05:54AM (#48829890)

> The FTC isn't there to stop corporations from making mistakes.

That's not the point parent is trying to make either, but FTC was supposed to prevent detrimental anti-competitive and monopolistic behaviors, which that very much was.

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Re:Microsoft Fire IdTech Team at Id Software by pfdietz on Wednesday July 08, 2026 @08:44AM (#48831206)

I don't think you can view the horrific performance of MSFT's gaming division as an example of successful anticompetitive behavior. It is not in any way sustainable, as demonstrated by their slash and burn actions now.

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Re:Microsoft Fire IdTech Team at Id Software by embedding-shape on Wednesday July 08, 2026 @09:19AM (#48831581)

And you're arguing that FTC should only act against potentially successful anti-competitive and monopolistic behavior? Who cares how high the chance of "success" (from Microsoft's POV), shitty behaviour is shitty behaviour, regardless or not if it's successful.

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Re:Microsoft Fire IdTech Team at Id Software by pfdietz on Wednesday July 08, 2026 @11:03AM (#48832908)

Yes, let's penalize entities for pre-crime. What could possibly be wrong with that? /s

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Re:Microsoft Fire IdTech Team at Id Software by thewebguyd on Wednesday July 08, 2026 @11:17AM (#48833077)

Prosecutable anticompetitive behavior doesn't require success or not. Antitrust law forbids "attempted monopolization" doesn't matter if the monopolist succeeds or not. Its about intent and systemic harm, and slash and burn tactics does often run afoul of antitrust laws. Its structural risk to the market, not precrime.

The FTC's role is to block mergers where the effect "may be substantially to lessen competition, or tend to create a monopoly." Merger review by design is predictive.

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Re:Microsoft Fire IdTech Team at Id Software by Goronmon on Tuesday July 07, 2026 @12:23PM (#48819999)

Microsoft EEE at its best: gobble up all game studios and then kill them.

"Embrace, Extend, Extinguish" isn't applicable at all in this context though?

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Re:Microsoft Fire IdTech Team at Id Software by tomnipotent on Tuesday July 07, 2026 @12:28PM (#48820090)

Of course not, but most folks poking at Microsoft are just borrowing their opinion from other people and regurgitating it for karma. I'm happy to crap on MS for bad decisions, but the constant "herp derp EEE" gets tired fast.

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Re:Microsoft Fire IdTech Team at Id Software by stephen_g on Tuesday July 07, 2026 @10:04PM (#48826614)

Yes, in this case it's a slightly different (and much more common) strategy - EEE was a bit of a Microsoft trademark but we see what's happening here much more widely, especially by massive companies as well as with PE. I'd say it'd be better described as AEE - Acquire, Enshittify, Extinguish...

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Re:Microsoft Fire IdTech Team at Id Software by satvikpendem on Tuesday July 07, 2026 @12:34PM (#48820164)

EEE requires them to have succeeded to extinguish, not just be incompetent as to close them down.

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Re:Microsoft Fire IdTech Team at Id Software by LadyCailin on Tuesday July 07, 2026 @12:37PM (#48820208)

I don’t think that applies here. They don’t have a monopoly on gaming, there are major competitors in the space, from Sony and Nintendo, as well as Steam/Indie devs. Buying some studios might be anticompetitive in some minor ways, for instance if you’re a huge elder scrolls or fallout fan, but there’s just too many games out there for that to possibly be a viable strategy at a macroscopic level.

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