Court Proceedings Begin For FTC’s Preliminary Injunction Against Microsoft
The legal battle between the US Federal Trade Commission and Microsoft heats up as court proceedings for the preliminary injunction on the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard merger began yesterday. The injunction request was filed last week by the FTC to ensure that the controversial $69 billion deal doesn’t push through while they’re still looking into possible antitrust violations.
During the first day of the proceedings, dropped several bombshells against Microsoft, citing several games and franchises from Bethesda Softworks and ZeniMax Online Studio that have become PC and Xbox-exclusive since the companies were bought by Microsoft in 2021. Those include Starfield and an in-development title based on the Indiana Jones IP. The Indy game was originally planned for release on multiple platforms before ZeniMax (and Microsoft by extension) scooped up its developer MachineGames.
The FTC further argued that Microsoft could simply bide their time and wait for its 10-year licensing deals to expire before doing the same thing to the Call of Duty franchise and other Activision Blizzard games. Microsoft countered the argument saying that the ABK acquisition will be more like its acquisition of Minecraft rather than ZeniMax.
It was also revealed that Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick sought a larger revenue share for putting Call of Duty on Xbox, and that Sony President Jim Ryan is confident that the franchise will remain on the PlayStation despite the company’s desperate attempts to block the merger. Cloud gaming is also apparently the least popular feature in Xbox Game Ultimate, as revealed by Xbox Head of Devices Sarah Bond.
Regardless of which of the two companies the judge will side with, the outcome of this legal battle will undoubtedly have significant implications for the video game industry and competition in the market.
