The main conflict in this transaction is the permanence of the popular Call of Duty franchise on PlayStation consoles, as antitrust agencies have considered that the merger would allow Microsoft to assume a dominant role in the video game business, especially in the cloud business. which is growing.
Faced with this complaint, Microsoft’s legal leader, Brad Smith, mentioned that they would fight in court. “While we believed that peace should be given a chance, we have full confidence in our argument and welcome the opportunity to present it in court.”
The FTC argues that after acquiring a smaller video game publisher, ZeniMax, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, Microsoft decided to reserve exclusivity for games like Starfield after nonetheless assuring European competition authorities that it had no interest in ceasing to do so. distribute the games on competing consoles.
At the beginning of November, the European Commission -executive arm of the European Union- announced the opening of an “in-depth” investigation of the proposed purchase of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, also due to the possible effects on competition in the segment. of video games.
This operation has been reviewed by different regulators in the world, from Brazil, the United Kingdom and the United States. In all countries the proposal has been controversial.
With information from Reuters and AFP.