Who has the better lawyers, Microsoft or the FTC? The former, it seems, as U.S. Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley has denied the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction, effectively allowing the Xbox and Windows maker to move forward with its planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard in a deal worth $69 billion. The FTC has until July 14 to appeal Corley’s decision, but Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which objected against the deal in April, is now saying that it’s willing to listen to Microsoft’s proposals to resolve antitrust concerns.
“The FTC has not shown it is likely to succeed on its assertion the combined firm will probably pull Call of Duty from Sony PlayStation, or that its ownership of Activision content will substantially lessen competition in the video game library subscription and cloud gaming markets,” Corley wrote.
“We’re grateful to the court in San Francisco for this quick and thorough decision and hope other jurisdictions will continue working towards a timely resolution,” Microsoft President Brad Smith said. “As we’ve demonstrated consistently throughout this process, we are committed to working creatively and collaboratively to address regulatory concerns.”
“We are disappointed in this outcome given the clear threat this merger poses to open competition in cloud gaming, subscription services, and consoles,” FTC spokesman Douglas Farrar said in an email. “In the coming days we’ll be announcing our next step to continue our fight to preserve competition and protect consumers.”
In a decision, Scott Corley denied the FTC’s preliminary injunction, which sought to block the deal on the grounds it would harm gamers. At a June hearing, the FTC argued Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision would harm competition since the combined company would have an incentive to withhold key titles, like top-selling shooter game Call of Duty, from rival consoles and subscription services.
Discussion (19 replies)
Join Discussion →I wonder how much MS is being forced to spend to allow them to do the acquisition?
Ironically I'd say the greatest value, for now, that came of the FTC hearings is the number of details for the various deals and practices that Sony and MS have going on, or done in the recent past. We covered a chunk of it but even then there was more than what we posted about. I almost did a roundup story about it but it would be a challenge to gather all the info since not all of it is labeled/titled/tagged across the internet as being related to these hearings.
That would be interesting to see. "Microsoft and Sony's backroom dealings."
Sounds like a Pornhub exclusive
While it might be dirty and for adult audiences only.. I doubt it's as satisfying to watch.
To the surprise of no one.
"Our wallets are open and waiting for a deposit"
Am I the only one glad Microsoft won this? Now I think they just need to convince the UK?
I don't know if this will be good or bad. I mean Activision Blizzard is probably the worst company in gaming currently, so new leadership might do a very much needed cleaning of the house. But at the same time consolidating two of the biggest players under one umbrella greatly increases their monopoly which has a potential to be very bad for the customer.
Sums up my thoughts on it as well
I don't think Microsoft has a monopoly on anything in the gaming industry. Other then their Windows operating system being the go to OS for PC gaming.
But as long as they release all their "Xbox" exclusive titles on PC as well I am good with it.
For example if two studios under them want to make similar games it definitely won't be allowed. So far the only big success from microsoft's recent push into gaming was FS2020, so it's not like everything they touch turns to gold. I can't even be cautiously optimistic. I predict 3-4 years of turmoil then a parting of ways.
I have a hard time imagining a monopoly on development of video games.
I can see on distribution of games, but so long as MS allows alternate storefronts on Windows, I don't see an issue. It's not like they are walling off Windows the same way they do the Console.
I don't know how Microsoft would handle "similar" games. I think that needs defining a little more. Like, make another racing game? I don't see why not unless it's a clone of Forza.
I also don't know how much "say-so" Microsoft gives in what games studios can or can not make. I've never seen Bethesda complain about "We can't do that because Microsoft wont allows us" except for the "Make a Playstation version" where Microsoft has already said "nope".
Well that's just the gaming industry as a whole. No one has a 100% success rate unless they made one game that was super successful and then never made another game after that. haha
Now that MS has a couple companies under them that make what are otherwise considered good MMO's...
I wonder if we will see some new MMO come from this.