The US Federal Trade Commission (ftc extension) said in a new filing that it believes Microsoft’s actions following its acquisition of Zenimax and Bethesda provide “important evidence” for prevent the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Xbox.
The FTC explains that Microsoft is taking care of publishing Bethesda and Zenimax games making them Xbox exclusives, especially with regard to the most important games (such as Starfield), which they won’t be coming to PS5.
“Respondents placed great emphasis on Microsoft’s concerns that it would ‘infuriate gamers’ if it barred rivals from accessing Activision content…But those same concerns did not derail ZeniMax’s decision,” the statement read. . In other words, according to the FTC the fact that Xbox says it is concerned about make the players angry whether it should make Activision’s games exclusive isn’t really a real concern because it has already followed that strategy with Bethesda/Zenimax games.
The new documents come shortly after the recent one FTC injunction which temporarily blocked Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard and which was approved by a US federal court.
We will have to see if these concerns of the FTC will carry much weight in the final decision to acquire Activision Blizzard in the US. We also point out that the situation is also being analyzed in New Zealand and a decision will come later than expected: the cloud creates doubts.
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