• The judge in the FTC vs. Microsoft hearing has come to a decision, ruling in favour of Microsoft.
• Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley said that while the Activision Blizzard may be damaging to PlayStation’s business, it is not for the entire gaming industry.
• The UK’s CMA is now the only major regulator that opposes the deal.

Over the past couple of weeks we have been following the FTC vs. Microsoft hearings, in which some bombshell revelations surfaced, including the fact that PlayStation is not actually worried about its access to Call of Duty games should the acquisition of Activision Blizzard happen.

Now said hearings have reached their conclusion, and Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley has reached a decision, ruling in favour of Microsoft.

As such, the Federal Trade Commission’s injunction against Microsoft has been denied, but it is still mulling over its next move regarding the acquisition.

“We are disappointed in this outcome given the clear threat this merger poses to open competition in cloud gaming, subscription services, and consoles. In the coming days we’ll be announcing our next step to continue our fight to preserve competition and protect consumers,” FTC spokesperson Douglas Farrar noted in a statement.

This saga then, is not done and dusted for now.

Shifting focus to Judge Corley’s decision, she explained that while the acquisition potentially threatens PlayStation’s bottom line, the deal would in fact bring more parity to the gaming industry, particularly when it comes to accessing Activision Blizzard games like Call of Duty.

“Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision has been described as the largest in tech history. It deserves scrutiny. That scrutiny has paid off: Microsoft has committed in writing, in public, and in court to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for 10 years on parity with Xbox. It made an agreement with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty to Switch. And it entered several agreements to for the first time bring Activision’s content to several cloud gaming services. This Court’s responsibility in this case is narrow. It is to decide if, notwithstanding these current circumstances, the merger should be halted—perhaps even terminated—pending resolution of the FTC administrative action,” Judge Corley’s statement highlighted.

“For the reasons explained, the Court finds the FTC has not shown a likelihood it will prevail on its claim this particular vertical merger in this specific industry may substantially lessen competition. To the contrary, the record evidence points to more consumer access to Call of Duty and other Activision content. The motion for a preliminary injunction is therefore DENIED,” it continued.

Naturally Microsoft was thrilled with the news, with vice chair and president of the company, Brad Smith sharing a statement on Twitter.

Xbox head Phil Spencer was equally enthused, noting in a thread of tweets regarding the company’s commitment to making games accessible in future that, “Since we first announced this deal, our commitment to bringing more games to more people on more devices has only grown. We’ve signed multiple agreements to make Activision Blizzard’s games, Xbox first party games and Game Pass all available to more players than they are today.”

While it remains to be seen if this FTC-related saga is over with, as it currently stands, only the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is the only major regulator to hold out at this stage.

Whether Microsoft is willing to gamble on losing the region in order to push through the deal is unclear for now, but pressure will likely begin to grow in the UK following this latest decision.

[Image – Photo by Billy Freeman on Unsplash]