It seems like Microsoft has achieved a major victory this year in relation to the acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. It was revealed back in June 2023 that the Federal Trade Commission had filed a lawsuit against Microsoft because their $69 billion acquisition of Activision-Blizzard was seen as illegal. The argument against Microsoft was that it violated antitrust laws involving the Sherman Act also that the tech giant was trying to form a monopoly. We recently learned that the judge hearing the case between Microsoft and the Federal Trade Commission had denied the preliminary injunction request made by the FTC. While the FTC disapproved of Microsoft’s tactics to get more consumers to purchase their products Judge Jacqueline Corley sided with Microsoft; mainly because of their deals with Sony and Nintendo in relation to the Call of Duty franchise. Microsoft not only promised to bring more Call of Duty games to Nintendo consoles in the future; but they will also allow CoD titles to appear on PlayStation 5 and possibly PS6 within the next ten years.

If Microsoft did not make any of those commitments to Sony or Nintendo the Federal Trade Commission probably would have had a better chance of preventing the deal from moving forward. FTC Spokesperson Douglas Farrar has openly expressed his frustration on the court ruling regarding the case against Microsoft and it certain that the agency is planning its next move for the future. Also, Activision-Blizzards CEO Bobby Kotick seems to be support the merger with Microsoft and argued that will be beneficial for both consumers and workers. As it currently stands we are waiting for Microsoft to official close the deal with Activision-Blizzard despite the UK attempts to block it. But since European regulators have given Microsoft the green light to move forward with the Activision-Blizzard deal its likely that everything will be finalized within the next few months. It will be interesting to see how this deal will effect the landscape of gaming within the next ten years.