FTC Loses Appeal Against Microsoft's Activision Blizzard Acquisition - News
by William D'Angelo , posted 4 days ago / 2,424 Views
Microsoft completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard in October 2023, however, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) would file an appeal in December 2023 in an attempt to overturn the court's decision to allow the merger to proceed.
The appeal by the FTC has now been rejected by the 9th Circuit US Court of Appeals, according to a report by Bloomberg.
Judge
The appeals court stated the FTC did not show that Microsoft would cut off rivals from having access to Call of Duty or that it would lessen competition in the video game subscription market.
The decision also stated the FTC did not show that the deal would hurt competition in the cloud streaming market and said the FTC "failed to show that Activision Blizzard content would be available to this market in the absence of the merger."
Collins stated that all console manufactures release exclusive titled and that Nintendo and Sony release more exclusive games to their platform than Xbox does.
"All major manufacturers have engaged in this practice," said Collins on exclusivity. "[Nintendo and Sony] both have significantly higher number of exclusive games on their platform than [Microsoft] does."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Bluesky.
More Articles
Didn’t realise this was still going on in the background.
I wonder how long before it dredges up certain ‘sentiments’ within these comments.
I mean it has basically been a done deal for a while now. To their credit, Microsoft has been very generous with spreading around their titles across different platforms in the wake of this acquisition. Time will tell what the future holds and what the ultimate ramifications of this deal will be on the industry at large.
I commend the FCC for trying though. They have taken a tougher anti-monopoly stance as of late (started under the Biden administration).
Lina Khan was a very good chair pick. Shame Trump knocked her out pretty much instantly (tho even Kamala was looking to get rid of her…both sides were pretty upset with her anti-big-business decisions).
there was 0 doubt here
Now they can finally acquire someone else to feed gamepass.
"Microsoft completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard in October 2013"- Typo there, should be 2023
I mean... Its really hard to argue against this buyout when they are publishing games on all platforms lol
The problem with the aquisition, is that when we eventually get to cloud gaming streaming and subscription models as the norm, sony won't be able to compete with microsoft.
Nintendo might get away with it cause of it's grounded ip, but i'm not sure if sony has enough current ip franchises to compete against the aquistion.
Will it ever become that? MS's GP only works because MS are willing to pay and sacrifice potential revenue of their biggest games for day 1, something Sony and Nintendo are unlikely to ever do.
The lose of revenue when you don't have the biggest monopoly in the world to subsidise it is far too great to make it worth while.
'Potential' it has been just announced that COD Bo6 is the most succesfull one in COD's history in the term of Revenue atleast and surpassed any COD game.... And the game is still selling and ongoing... While many millions play it on gamepass and boosted GP numbers. And Nintedo kind of does it with their classics on the NSO subcrition surely they must be losing millions by not selling those games but at the same time gain so much more because people subscribe...
Yeah but that's CoD and also available on PC and Playstation. The BO brand obviously increased sales, and according to articles it increased 60% on PS and PC (CoD already makes bank). Great numbers, now how much more sales did it have on Xbox? What we got told is that it had an increase on GP subs, I mean yeah but not sales.
Let's be fair and compare one Nintendo's biggest with CoD. Zelda. Last Zelda sold 10 million in a week, at min £50, this is a revenue of half a billion. The classic of NSO do not compare to the potential revenue of a new released Zelda, Mario or Kart game, it's the same reason why Sony release classics on PS+Extra/Prem and don't release new games. They can make more from doing it that way.
Why don't Disney release new movies on Disney plus? Same reason.
I agree, potentially they could but I just don't see it. Plus hope it doesn't, online only sub model for all companies sounds shite.
FCC Employees: "Why do I only see Satya Nadella when I close my eyes?!!"
MS has basically gone multiplat, so there should be little concern about it now.
Huh, I think its possible this lawsuit encouraged Playstation ports. Well, that and the opportunity to make money on software.
You might be right.
Why are they trying to appeal it? What a waste of resources.
Essay Pro