According to The Verge, Microsoft won the case against the FTC regarding their acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. California judge Jacqueline Scott Corley has denied preliminary injunction towards Microsoft. There's still some matter of an antitrust case against the Redmond company, but at least this part of the ordeal can move forward.
Quote From Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision has been described as the largest in tech history. It deserves scrutiny. That scrutiny has paid off: Microsoft has committed in writing, in public, and in court to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for 10 years on parity with Xbox. It made an agreement with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty to Switch. And it entered several agreements to for the first time bring Activision’s content to several cloud gaming services. This Court’s responsibility in this case is narrow. It is to decide if, notwithstanding these current circumstances, the merger should be halted—perhaps even terminated—pending resolution of the FTC administrative action. For the reasons explained, the Court finds the FTC has not shown a likelihood it will prevail on its claim this particular vertical merger in this specific industry may substantially lessen competition. To the contrary, the record evidence points to more consumer access to Call of Duty and other Activision content. The motion for a preliminary injunction is therefore DENIED.
According to the quote above, Microsoft has already signed a 10-year deal to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation. What will happens after those 10 years is anyone's guess, but CoD players on PS will still be able to enjoy the franchise for now. Phil Spencer has responded to the news, reiterating their desire to bring Activision-Blizzard's games to other platforms.
Quote From Phil Spencer We're grateful to the court for swiftly deciding in our favor. The evidence showed the Activision Blizzard deal is good for the industry and the FTC’s claims about console switching, multi-game subscription services, and cloud don’t reflect the realities of the gaming market.
Since we first announced this deal, our commitment to bringing more games to more people on more devices has only grown. We’ve signed multiple agreements to make Activision Blizzard’s games, Xbox first party games and Game Pass all available to more players than they are today.
We know that players around the world have been watching this case closely and I’m proud of our efforts to expand player access and choice throughout this journey. END
What do you think of these news? Is this a good thing for the gaming market, or is Microsoft getting too big? Let us know in the comments below!
Comments
This is bad and just another glaring issue on our government and their inability to stop corporate conglomeration.
Dont really feel anything either way, but I dont like the idea of merging big businesses together. Increasing bureaucracy, and the fact that microsoft doesnt have a good track record of making good games is perhaps more concerning, but having one massive company in control of so many things is never a good thing.
Its bad enough that they practically monopolizes the OS industry, wouldn't want to see blizz be dragged into cold storage for an eternity because some blue suits dont know how to manage their gaming portfolio.
While it can mean good things it can also mean bad things down the line. Monopolies are never a good thing.
I don't see anything wrong with this deal. My only hope is the Starcraft franchise is resurrected coz MS did do Age of Empires so they are familiar to RTS games and will be expand more in that genre, even if it is dwindling.
I'm hoping against all hope that Microsoft resurrects Heroes of the Storm. Despite what it looked like from the outside, an ex-Blizzard employee who was on the HotS team recently said that HotS was never in the red for its entire supported existence. Activision only tanked it because it wasn't making LoL-degrees of money.
I do think HotS came to the moba genre a bit too late (released in 2015) compared to Dota 2 and LoL. I really enjoyed HotS but all my hardcore moba friends never played with me coz they were too invested in Dota 2 already :(
If only Blizzard had reacted quick enough when Ice frog had created a brand new game genre in Warcraft 3 custom maps...
That's really sad to hear since HotS was a favorite of mine as a healthy alternative to the toxic cesspool that is LoL.
I'm really hoping they put the Transformers and Marvel games on Game Pass. Transformers shouldn't be that big an issue, Hasbro isn't really beholden to any platform. Marvel may prove more difficult, especially if Sony has anything to say about Spider-Man.