Microsoft and Activision have officially filed their responses to the FTC’s massive lawsuit against the Activision Blizzard merger this week. The FTC has proved to be one of the merger’s largest government opponents, echoing many of the same concerns as its regulators across the pond, fearing that Microsoft would harm competition in the video game industry if it were to go through. The opposition towards the merger has grown since the FTC’s lawsuit, most notably with the recent group of gamers filing a lawsuit against the acquisition. Even so, Microsoft has maintained its confidence in the merger, and Activision is backing them up.
According to Microsoft, the goal of the merger is to grow Xbox’s presence in mobile gaming and make Activision’s franchises more accessible to consumers. Microsoft believes that the acquisition will not “upend” the video game industry and will be a benefit to consumers, unlike what their detractors say.
“It is therefore unsurprising that after nearly a full year investigating this transaction, receiving millions of Microsoft and Activision documents, and speaking to over a dozen witnesses, there is no evidence that Xbox intends to take Call of Duty away from PlayStation—or any platform at all.” said Microsoft. “No emails, no text messages, no testimony. There is one reason for that: Xbox does not intend to take that step. Xbox has some exclusive games, which are a necessary feature of any content business. But Xbox cannot afford to take Activision’s games exclusive without undercutting the basic economics of the transaction…”
In their own statement Activision echoed Microsoft’s statements, focusing heavily on the FTC’s accusations over the concerns over making Call Of Duty an Xbox exclusive.
“…The FTC ignores the significant benefits of the Transaction in favor of a warped attempt to ignore the facts and rewrite antitrust law and settled precedent to protect Xbox’s competitors from hypothetical harm that has no basis in marketplace realities.” said Activision. “Adding Activision’s content to multigame subscription and cloud gaming, where it would not have been available otherwise, is plainly output enhancing and gives garners more options on how and where to engage with Activision content…”
Activision is not the only game company to harshly critique the FTC’s arguments. Previously, an unknown party published critiqued the U.S. regulator in their own response through the UK’s CMA, being among the first to call the regulator’s concerns against the acquisition unfounded.