Microsoft sealed the deal to acquire Activision Blizzard King in October 2023, and since then, the buyout has proven to be a boon for the gaming and tech titan. For instance, when Black Ops 6 was released last year as the first day-one Call of Duty title to hit Game Pass, it led to the single biggest day for new subscriptions on record.
You’d think that all the conversations about the Activision acquisition would have dried up, but recently, a US appeals court decreed that the super-sized buyout did not violate antitrust laws, and that everything was above board and as legit as could be.
Are You Finished?
In a report published by Bloomberg’s legal team, the details from a document posted today by the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit were written front and centre. The document might have been discussing an acquisition settled in 2023, but the results of an investigation revealed that the buyout is still having a current impact on the state of the industry.
The 39-page document is a little word-heavy, but it states quite clearly that Microsoft didn’t violate antitrust laws when shelling out $69 billion to secure Activision Blizzard King.
Not only that, but the heavily publicised ruling will, as Bloomberg puts it, ‘reshape how the Federal Trade Commission reviews deals involving rapidly evolving technology.’
According to the US court that debated the FTC’s appeal, there wasn’t enough of a case made to dispute claims that Microsoft would block competitors from accessing top-tier franchises like Call of Duty. It also stressed that the FTC hadn’t proven to any real extent that the Microsoft-Activision merger would damage competitors in the cloud streaming space.
It was written in the document about fostering exclusives to stoke interest in certain platforms:
To varying degrees, the major console manufacturers have used exclusive content as a means to differentiate themselves in the console market. Some of this exclusivity is achieved by limiting the availability of a manufacturer’s first-party games to its own console.
All major manufacturers have engaged in this practice. Microsoft has in recent years released its first-party games exclusively on Xbox and PCs, most of which use Microsoft’s Windows operating system. As the district court found, however, Nintendo and Sony “both have significantly higher number of exclusive games on their platform than [Microsoft] does.”
Everything that Microsoft promised during the landmark FTC trial has been delivered, more or less. We’re yet to see a Call of Duty title surface on the Nintendo Switch, but the second iteration of the best-selling console is on the horizon, and it’s only a matter of time…
Are you surprised to see that folks are still discussing this acquisition for the ages? Let me know what you think on the Insider Gaming forum.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that Marvel Rivals fans are turning feral at Squirrel Girl’s new costume
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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