Three years ago, the gaming world was rocked when Microsoft announced that it was acquiring Activision-Blizzard in a $70 billion deal, the biggest in gaming history.
While the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) tried blocking it, citing antitrust concerns, the ruling in 2023 fell in Microsoft's favor, though that hasn't stopped the FTC from appealing the decision.
Microsoft Now Officially Owns Activsion-Blizzard-King
A federal appeals court in San Francisco has rejected the legal challenge of the FTC regarding Microsoft's acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. (via Reuters).
In 2023, US District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley refused to block the acquisition, stating that the FTC had not shown that Microsoft's ownership of Activision would "substantially lessen competition in the video game library subscription and cloud gaming markets." This means that Microsoft now owns Activision-Blizzard-King officially starting today with the FTC's meddling finally ending.
Even with Microsoft's ownership of the mega-publisher, the chances of Call of Duty, Diablo, and the other franchises from Activision being Xbox-exclusive are slim. Not only did Sony sign a new multi-year agreement to have Call of Duty available on PlayStation platforms, but Microsoft's recent multi-platform release strategy for games means that even first-party games such...
