The long-drawn lawsuit by the US Federal Trade Commission against Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard King took a jab at Microsoft’s earlier attainment of ZeniMax Media Inc, the parent company to Bethesda Softworks. The $7.5B deal was closed in March 2021, but the FTC still tried to bring it up that the Software and gaming mogul claimed rights to certain titles from the studio.
To counter the argument, Microsoft mentioned that after the first year of acquisition, the first two new games were made exclusive for Sony’s PlayStation. They also claimed that they do release regular updates to the Elder Scrolls Online and Fallout 76 games, which is available for both Xbox and PS. Their goal was to broaden the gaming community and enhance the gaming experience by allowing it across all platforms. Microsoft also laid an example of its acquisition of Mojang’s Minecraft, stating that it never limited Minecraft’s access to players across platforms.
This also brought up the discussion with the European Commission, where Microsoft said that all claims made to the Commission about ZeniMax were misleading and incorrect. The European Commission backed them by saying that it was not misled by the claims and that it processed the transaction between ZeniMax and Microsoft without fear of competition. Microsoft will stand by its word and will offer Sony exclusive rights to certain titles on a case-by-case basis.
Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision will bring mobile gaming to the forefront, as was their goal all along. They will also provide Activision titles on their subscription and cloud gaming services, making it more accessible for players who want a versatile payment platform to play games.
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