The Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday it has filed an antitrust case against MicrosoftActivision Blizzard
This isn’t Microsoft’s first time dealing with competitive pressure. In 1998 the U.S. Justice Department filed a broad antitrust case against the company. Microsoft changed some practices related to its Windows operating system business as a result.
Microsoft announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion in January, with the goal of closing it by June 2023. The deal has come under pressure from Microsoft’s competitors in gaming, such as Sonyvowed to provide popular “Call of Duty” games on gaming platforms other than those owned by Microsoft.
“We continue to believe that this deal will expand competition and create more opportunities for gamers and game developers,” Brad Smith, Microsoft’s vice chair and president, said in a statement. “We have been committed since Day One to addressing competitive 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.”
FTC commissioners voted 3-1 to move forward with the complaint.
“Microsoft has already shown that it can and will withhold content from its gaming rivals,” Holly Vedova, director of the FTC’s competition bureau, was quoted as saying in a statement. “Today we seek to stop Microsoft from gaining control over a leading independent game studio and using it to harm competition in multiple dynamic and fast-growing gaming markets.”
In the statement, the FTC said Activision Blizzard has brought its games to a variety of devices, irrespective of their manufacturers, but that might change if Microsoft were to complete the deal.
Microsoft does offer exclusive titles for its Xbox consoles, and in October Phil Spencer, CEO of gaming at Microsoft, pointed out that Sony has its own set of exclusive franchises, but over time Microsoft has brought games such as Minecraft to other devices. He argued that it’s important for more people, not less, to play games the company owns.
The FTC asserted that Microsoft has a record, including with its 2021 ZeniMax deal, of buying games and using the moves to suppress competition from other companies that make consoles. Microsoft made ZeniMax games such as Starfield and Redfall into exclusives after telling European antitrust regulators it didn’t have an incentive to stop people from playing the games on consoles other than the Xbox, the agency said.
Politico reported last month that the FTC was likely to try to block the deal.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
