The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the United States antitrust agencyhas submitted a antitrust lawsuit against Microsoftby the purchase of Activisionfor a value of 69,000 million dollars.
Microsoft I buy Activisionat the beginning of the year, becoming the most expensive acquisition in the history of the company, and of the video game industry. But the operation was paralyzed until the antitrust authorities approved the purchase. Something that hasn’t happened.
Activision is an entertainment giant that also owns companies like Blizzardeither Kingwith multiplayer online games among the top moneymakers every year, such as Call of Duty, Candy Crush, Diablo, World of Warcraft, Overwatchetc.
To realize the revenue level of these games, the latest Call of Duty grossed 1 billion dollars in just 10 days.
It is the key game in this lawsuit, because sony He has been arguing for months that it will be very harmed Yes call of duty it becomes a exclusive game of Xbox Y pc.
Microsoft has offered a deal for the popular franchise to remain 10 years in the sony consolebut the Japanese company has not accepted.
The reasons for the antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft
The FTC argues in the statement that it has decided report Microsoft for two basic reasons: the purchase affects a very small market where there is only two major high-level competitors (Microsoft and Sony), and Satya Nadella’s company has not fulfilled the promise it made to the European Union when he bought Bethesda.
“Buying Activision would allow Microsoft to weed out competitors for its Xbox video game consoles and its fast-growing cloud gaming and subscription content business.“, the statement states.
“Activision’s current strategy is to offer its games on many devices, regardless of manufacturer. But that could change if the deal is allowed to go ahead. With control of Activision’s big franchises, Microsoft would have the means and the motives to hurt the competition“, explain it Federal Trade Commission.
The antitrust agency think Microsoft could manipulate the marketharming consumers:
“Could manipulate Activision’s pricing, degrade the quality of Activision games or player experience on rival game consoles and services, change the terms and timing of access to Activision content, or withhold Activision content altogether. competitors, which would harm consumers“.
Another striking argument is that accuses Microsoft of lying to the authoritieswhen he told the EU that he had no interest in making Bethesda games exclusive, and months later he announced that Starfield and Redfall would be exclusive to Xbox and PC.
“Microsoft decided to make several of Bethesda’s titles, including Starfield and Redfall, exclusive to Microsoft, despite assuring European antitrust authorities that it had no incentive to block games on rival consoles.“.
Microsoft is also waiting for the antitrust agencies of United Kingdom and the European Unionpronounce themselves.
Behind the antitrust complaint from the FTC, Microsoft and their rivals will offer their arguments to convince the government agency, but the most likely thing is that have to give up part of the purchase of Activisionor sign an agreement so that their games are not exclusive.
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism