Microsoft’s Actions After Acquiring Bethesda Are Enough Evidence to Oppose Activision Blizzard Acquisition – FTC

The US Federal Trade Commision has stated in a new filing that it believes that Microsoft’s actions after acquiring Zenimax and Bethesda provide “powerful evidence” to prevent the company’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard from moving forward.

The FTC points towards the fact that Microsoft is releasing Bethesda and Zenimax games exclusively on Xbox platforms, especially with upcoming major titles like Starfield, which will not be getting released on the PS5.

“Defendants put great stock in Microsoft’s concerns about ‘infuriating gamers’ if it were to foreclose rivals’ access to Activision content… But those same concerns did not stop the ZeniMax decision,” says the statement.

The new documents comes shortly after a recent injunction filed by the FTC blocking Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, with a US federal court having agreed to the injunction.

The FTC had filed the statement in order to get some more time to build a legal case against Microsoft’s planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The merger has been under quite a bit of scrutiny all over the world. While the European Commission has approved the deal, UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has blocked it.