Microsoft has dealt with a lot of roadblocks and backlash after announcing the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Now, Microsoft has responded to US regulators’ antitrust case that was attempting to block the purchase.
At the start of 2022, Microsoft proposed a nearly $70 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, essentially purchasing the studios behind Call of Duty, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft. This brought about a lot of concern that Microsoft, who owns Xbox, would have a monopoly on the gaming space and eventually bar PlayStation from certain major titles.
On December 8, the Federal Trade Commission stated that the acquisition would violate federal law by harming competition. This put a huge damper on the plan moving forward, so Microsoft has filed a response arguing against the FTC’s claims.
“Even with confidence in our case, we remain committed to creative solutions with regulators that will protect competition, consumers, and workers in the tech sector,” Microsoft president Brad Smith said to CNBC.
Smith added that past lawsuits taught the company that there’s always room for an agreement that will “benefit everyone.”
Throughout the entirety of 2022, Microsoft has stated that there are deals already in place with Sony that not only allow Call of Duty to be on their platforms but that give PlayStation players exclusive content and early access to games. But Microsoft did add that some games could become an Xbox exclusive years in the future.
In October, Microsoft gaming CEO Phil Spencer also added that Call of Duty games will come to Nintendo consoles for the next 10 years. Spencer added that they offered the same 10-year agreement to Sony, but Sony “refused to deal,” according to the filing.
The filing continued to explain that there wasn’t any proof that Microsoft planned to keep Sony consoles from having Activision Blizzard games. Microsoft added that having the games available on all consoles is good for their company’s business, explaining that it’d be bad if Activision Blizzard lost income from gamers on different consoles.
CNBC also got a quote from Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick where he agreed there was “no sensible, legitimate reason” for the transaction to be prevented.
He went on to add that the idea that Microsoft would achieve anything approaching a monopoly by acquiring Activision was false, noting that “[t]he breadth of distribution options for games has never been more widespread. We believe we will prevail on the merits of the case.”
