Microsoft recently announced plans to purchase Activision Blizzard – one of the world's largest video game companies – for nearly $70bn, making it the biggest acquisition in tech to date. While big tech always seems to be facing some sort of – usually well-deserved – public criticism lately, the ire has mostly focused on social media. Facebook, YouTube and Twitter executives have all had to testify before Congress about their platforms' roles in spreading misinformation and being used as organizing tools for events like the January 6 storming of the US Capitol. This is all on top of a history of alleged labor violations, including complaints that traumatized content moderators are paid poverty wages and reports that Black employees face racial discrimination. Video game companies mirror many of the alleged problems of social media yet have long evaded accountability, outside of the occasional attempt to ban a violent video game.

Regulators in the EU and US have recently drawn attention to the market power and monopolistic behavior of big tech firms. Lawmakers in the EU argue that'traditional businesses are increasingly dependent on a limited number of large online platforms' and that these'gatekeepers' leverage their privileged position to stifle competition and enter new markets at a rapid pace (EPRS 2020). Striking a similar tone, lawmakers in the US claim that these companies have'abused their dominant positions, setting and often dictating prices and rules for commerce, search, advertising, social networking and publishing' (Kang and McCabe 2020). Yet these arguments tend to focus mostly on the conduct and market position of online platforms, while ignoring the underlying technologies by which they operate. But what if techniques like machine learning (ML) are themselves factors in the continuous expansion of already oversized tech giants?