The matter is complicated for Microsoft, which was still calm a few days ago about the takeover of Activision-Blizzard announced almost a year ago, in January 2022. Indeed, the Federal Trade Commission committee (which examines the folder for a while) published a document in which he explains his opposition to the $69 billion takeover of the Call of Duty publisher. After in-depth examinations, the competition authority believes that total control of flagship franchises such as Call of Duty by Microsoft would upset the balance of power in the video game industry. The promises made by Phil Spencer and his teams have therefore not convinced the competition authority, which points to a failure in Microsoft’s arguments, which maintains that it will continue to make games accessible on as many consoles as possible, even on Nintendo Switch if necessary. The FTC recalls that the takeover of Bethesda Softworks by Microsoft now prevents games such as Starfield and Redfall from being released on platforms other than those of the American giant Xbox. It is Holly Vedova, Director of the FTC’s Competition Bureau in person who strongly opposes this disproportionate takeover:
Microsoft has already shown that it can and will withhold content from its gaming rivals. Today, we seek to stop Microsoft from taking control of a leading independent game studio and using it to harm competition in several dynamic and fast-growing game markets.
The FTC press release goes further and claims to want to file a complaint against Microsoft to oppose this takeover, which risks complicating the task for the American giant, which is generally refused nothing. It is indeed explained that in “taking control of Activision’s successful franchises, Microsoft would have both the means and the motive to harm competition by manipulating Activision’s pricing, degrading the quality of Activision’s games or the player experience on competing game consoles and services, changing the terms and timing of access to Activision content, or withholding content from competitors entirely, which harms consumers.“
To defend itself and convince of its good faith, Microsoft takes the example of Minecraft, bought in 2014 for the sum of 2.5 billion dollars and which continues to be released on all consoles on the market. Microsoft even claims to encourage this diversity and ensures that this will always be the case for Call of Duty. Earlier this week Microsoft President Brad Smith provided more details in a Wall Street Journal op-ed about the company’s bid to keep the Call of Duty franchise on PlayStation for at least a decade. More recently, Microsoft has committed to allow Sony to release all Call of Duty games on its PlayStation Plus service on day one, the day of release to show fair competition, again over a period running over 10 years. . The European Commission and the UK’s CMA have also recently launched in-depth investigations into Microsoft’s acquisition plans. Nothing is won for Phil Spencer and his teams…