The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) took legal action today in an effort to block Microsoft from acquiring Activision Blizzard. This decision comes just under a year after Microsoft announced its intent to buy the creators of Overwatch and Diablo.
As previously reported by DualShockers, this acquisition was recently approved outside the United States by Serbian regulators, as well as Brazil and Saudi Arabia. Yesterday’s meeting with the FTC was Microsoft’s big hope for US approval. However, just one day later, the tech behemoth instead faces a major roadblock.
As reported by the Washington Post, the FTC voted 3 – 1 against Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, with a lawsuit issued just a day after the meeting with company representatives. The FTC’s lawsuit cites the deal’s completion “could not only give Microsoft an upper hand in consoles, but also an unfair advantage in more nascent gaming, such as subscription gaming and cloud gaming”. This claim falls close in line with direct competitor Sony’s view of the acquisition as detrimental to developers.
The FTC took this stance after reviewing Microsoft’s recent acquisitions, including Zenimax, the parent company of Bethesda. Just recently, Starfield became an Xbox exclusive, which went against promises made to regulators that the company wouldn’t be changing existing deals or restricting any content from its competitors.
Microsoft will fight the suit, however, as Brad Smith, President of Microsoft, relayed in a statement to The Verge. The statement read: “We continue to believe that this deal will expand competition and create more opportunities for gamers and game developers. We have been committed since Day One to addressing competition concerns, including by offering earlier this week proposed concessions to the FTC. While we believed in giving peace a chance, we have complete confidence in our case and welcome the opportunity to present our case in court.”
This is not the first time the FTC had entered a legal battle with Microsoft, as the commission had filed an antitrust complaint in 2001 regarding the Windows Operating System. During that suit, the parties came to a compromise, with Microsoft agreeing to adjust how it operated. While Microsoft is offering long-term deals for titles such as Call of Duty to Nintendo and Sony consoles currently, the outcome of this new lawsuit will no doubt set a precedent for future large-scale acquisitions in the gaming industry.
