Even if Microsoft emphasizes the acquisition of Activision BlizzardWill not constitute a market monopoly, and even promised to continue to provide Activision Blizzard games to other platforms, but it obviously still failed to convince the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Federal Trade CommissiondisplayThe company will investigate the potential impact of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. It also believes that even though Microsoft has stated it will not monopolize content produced by acquired gaming companies, given that Starfield, created by Bethesda, a subsidiary of ZeniMax, was recently released only on Xbox and Windows PC platforms, Microsoft is motivated to manipulate whether the game becomes a platform exclusive in order to benefit from its own development in the gaming market. It may even manipulate game pricing or deliberately restrict content performance, experience, and release time on other gaming platforms, thereby reducing players' willingness to join other platforms.
In addition to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard has also been targeted by the European Union's antitrust agency, which will conduct an in-depth investigation. The UK's competition regulator also conducted an in-depth investigation into Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard in September of this year. Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea are also continuing to observe whether Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard affects market competition. Only Saudi Arabia and Brazil have agreed to Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced that it will investigate whether Microsoft's transaction constitutes a monopoly, which may prevent Microsoft from successfully completing the transaction before July 2023 as originally planned. At that time, Microsoft's acquisition may fail, or it may have to sign a new acquisition agreement.
However, Microsoft President Brad Smith believes that the acquisition of Activision Blizzard can actually accelerate the growth of the gaming market, and Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick also expressed confidence in completing the transaction with Microsoft, and emphasized that this transaction is more beneficial to Activision Blizzard employees, market competition, and even the overall development of the gaming market. He even believes that it will give players more choices.
