The FTC is reviewing the Activision Blizzard acquisition
Microsoft is a gigantic company; there’s no doubt about that. This bit them from time to time, as the company has been at odds with the American government multiple times. The Department of Justice does not want any company to monopolize any market, and that’s what Microsoft seems to be doing with the gaming market. This is why everyone knew that the government was going to get involved with this acquisition. Right now, all we know is that the FTC is reviewing the purchase, but it hasn’t made any actions just yet. Everything is up in the air, so it’s anyone’s guess if Microsoft will be able to keep Activision Blizzard or not. When asked to comment on the matter, Microsoft declined to comment, and this goes for the FTC. Since the FTC is still in the process of reviewing the acquisition, it might be some time before we see any sort of resolution to this case.
If the acquisition is halted, it might be a good thing
If the FTC doesn’t approve of the deal, then it will undo a lot of work that’s probably begun, but that might not be so bad. Microsoft owning Activision Blizzard means that there are a lot of properties that won’t be accessible on PlayStation consoles anymore. Microsoft even stated that Call of Duty was only going to be on PlayStation consoles for another three more installments. Losing so many franchises on Playstation consoles would be quite a loss. Sony seemed to have retaliated by buying Bungie, the company that created Halo and Destiny. We don’t know if this acquisition will start some sort of feud between the two companies or not. For the time being, we’re still going to have to wait before we see any sort of change on this subject. As you can imagine, combing through a $68.7 billion acquisition might involve a lot of paperwork.
Here’s a refresher on what’s going on
Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard a few weeks ago, and that is something that a lot of people don’t like. In the acquisition, Microsoft was able to buy the rights to Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Diablo, Starcraft, Overwatch, Candy Crush, and other titles. This means that these titles won’t be available on PlayStation consoles.
