Who's building a monopoly?

[Matthew Jabour]

Recently, several big events have brought some giants in the entertainment industry together - J.J. Abrams got Star Wars VII and Star Trek, Disney got Lucasfilms and Marvel, etc. Now, this sort of thing goes on all the time, but it's often overlooked. So, for the purpose of educating others within this thread, can you think of any other big guys in the entertainment industry making a power play? This doesn't have to be about movies, it could be videogames or other forms of entertainment.

 

[Maximum Bert]

Er Microsoft or at least they have been trying to for ages or walkers crisps and Kellogs for their markets respectively. Maybe Nestle as well.

 

[ohnoitsabear]

Well, at the moment, it appears that the shoe is hell-bent on getting complete control of the orange properties, but the dog is staunchly refusing to give up control of New York Avenue. Who knows how this will turn out?

 

[WoW Killer]

I thought Microsoft and Sony were both hell bent on keeping the console market a stalemate. Or that's what it seems like.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well all the big names are attempting to buy up or drown out the competition, but as long as one isn't winning they can't be a monopoly. (EA, ActiBliz, Ubisoft, MS, Sony, Nintendo, Valve)
Valve may actually be the closest one to getting slashed for monopoly on their downloadable market.

 

[bigfatcarp93]

Isn't a monopoly illegal in America? Forgive my ignorance if it's not...

 

[Easton Dark]

Isn't a monopoly illegal in America? Forgive my ignorance if it's not...

Monopolies are not illegal. Certain monopolous (?) behaviors that abuse competitors are.

In fact, the government can sanction monopolies.

OT:

Valve has a pretty good stranglehold on the digital PC market.

Apple and Microsoft are pretty much it for Operating systems.

 

[spartan231490]

not actually a monopoly. A monopoly would be owning every movie studio, or something similar.

 

[triggrhappy94]

Funny story about Microsoft. They actually had to prop up Apple at one point, because they would have a real monopoly if Apple went under. If that happened they would have been broken up--they were already almost broken up when they got sued by Netscape.

 

[Spuds]

Realistically a monopoly is when one business is big enough to stifle all other competition.

I remember watching the CRTC hearings when bell was trying to acquire astral media. It gave me hope about Canadian politics to see those CRTC guys dismissing the threadbare arguments and time filler speeches made by both sides. The comparison that i think of would be if they pulled some regular guy off the street and sat him down to listen to middle school speeches about the intricacies of sea turtles. Anyways bell lost but their always trying absorb more...

 

[Pink Gregory]

Well, at the moment, it appears that the shoe is hell-bent on getting complete control of the orange properties, but the dog is staunchly refusing to give up control of New York Avenue. Who knows how this will turn out?

I reckon the Iron will crash the stock market with its reckless spending and insistence on landing at Pall Mall.

 

[strumbore]

Monopoly:

No such thing.

But that's a discussion better left to the "Politics" forum.

 

[Keoul]

Monopoly:

No such thing.

But that's a discussion better left to the "Politics" forum.

Spoiler: Check Mate

OT: There's not that many monopolies out there, duopolies are common but most countries have laws and regulations making a monopoly a difficult thing to achieve.

 

[strumbore]

Holy crap! I HATE that game! It just goes on, and on, and on, and on!

 

[emeraldrafael]

Isn't a monopoly illegal in America? Forgive my ignorance if it's not...

They are in certain cases. Natural monopolies are perefectly legal but strictly enforced (mostly utilities fall into this category, with the biggest example being water and plumbing). other monopolies can arise just because they keep enough competition around. most all industries of note have the typical BIG players (the big 6 film studies, the big 3 in gaming, the big computer manufacturing companies, etc) that do all the major decisions while the small "independents" are more or less left to rot and voice their opinions to no one. as long as they dont all get together and say, "hey, lets all agree to just charge 5000 dollars and buy out anyone smaller who disagrees or crush any of us that defect, because seriously, fuck the public what are teh going to do about it" the gov doesnt usually care when you have a main group.

of course thats also cause of political donations so yeah.

hell, even Apple was talked about having a lawsuit for monopolies with its iTunes thing because in the beginning (Im not an apple fan so i dont know if its still like this since I dont use apple products), the way the data was kept you couldnt use it on any non apple MP3 player, so it forced you to buy your product and only your product and because there wasnt many legal options outside of iTunes it was more or less a monopoly.

Funny Anecdote: I almost have a full monopoly with my friend, but he owns one of the first two really light blue squares but government subsidies are stopping me from destroying him, plus he keeps investing well and fighting me off with his capital gains. But I have him cornered into the island of madagascar and am starving him down. once that falls I'll just use my powers as world emperor to shut his ass down and dominate.

 

[NinjaSniperAssassin]

I am. So far I have all the Reds, all the Oranges and all the Yellows. I call it my "Gauntlet of Doom".

 

[thesilentman]

OT:

Valve has a pretty good stranglehold on the digital PC market.

Apple and Microsoft are pretty much it for Operating systems.

Not really. We have GOG, Green Man Gaming, Desura and retail if you're lucky. It makes me laugh whenever someone comes out and says that Valve's a PC gaming monopoly.

For your second point, I'll just say Linux and stop there. Wait a moment, I mean Ubuntu, Fedora, Mint, OpenSUSE, and Bodhi Linux along with many more OSes.

OT- I remember an electric company in the southern US that has a monopoly on power. I wanted to pull this out as a counter to the OP (which all the more proves monopolies), but I cannot remember the name of that company for the life of me.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

OT:

Valve has a pretty good stranglehold on the digital PC market.

Apple and Microsoft are pretty much it for Operating systems.

Not really. We have GOG, Green Man Gaming, Desura and retail if you're lucky. It makes me laugh whenever someone comes out and says that Valve's a PC gaming monopoly.

To be fair, you practically need a Steam account to play PC games nowadays. Most of the stuff sold on GMG and at retail requires you to download and install Steam, GOG focuses on retro and indie games and (correct me if I'm wrong, this is just from a quick browsing of their site) Desura is largely indie/small dev focused with a few older games.

So retail/GMG makes you use Steam and GOG/Desura are only really competing with a single aspect of Steam. I can definitely see why Steam is accused of having a monopoly.

 

[Shrack]

You may almost need a Steam account, but you don't have to pay money to have a Steam account. So it really does not mean anything. The reason that Steam is so popular is because it does a very good job at what it does in many ways. But it does not really do anything to stifle competition. Other companies may be using some aspect of Steam, but who is getting paid for a game bought on GOG? GOG of course. VALVe does not see revenue from that sale.

 

[Lucid_Camel]

This Girl made her Bf a Fallout:NV monopoly board..look that shit up its amazing