US Judge Temporarily Blocks Microsoft's Acquisition of Activision Blizzard

[T0@st]

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed an injunction earlier this week, in a renewed effort to temporarily block Microsoft's $69 billion bid for full ownership of the Activision Blizzard group. A judge has today granted the regulatory body's request. The court has issued a temporary restraining order—in which it states the legal measure "is necessary to maintain the status quo while the complaint is pending." The FTC proposes that the acquisition has the potential to "substantially lessen competition" within North America's gaming sector. Microsoft and Activision are required to attend a two-day hearing—scheduled for 22 June in San Francisco, California.

The FTC had previously penciled in an August 2 session with an internal administrative judge, following the expiration of Microsoft's proposed deadline (July 18) for the merger. A company spokesperson (commenting to Eurogamer) expressed that leadership was happy about the FTC's decision to bring proceedings forward in time: "Accelerating the legal process in the US will ultimately bring more choice and competition to the gaming market. A temporary restraining order makes sense until we can receive a decision from the Court, which is moving swiftly." The legal document outlines terms including the prevention of "any of their officers, directors, domestic or foreign agents, divisions, subsidiaries, affiliates, partnerships, or joint ventures from closing or consummating, directly or indirectly, the proposed transaction or a substantially similar transaction."



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[Bomby569]

this could make a netflix series. Wasn't the US in favour and the EU against! What is going on?

 

[R0H1T]

Don't worry MS will slip enough Benjamíns at the Capitol to pass this.

 

[Ravenmaster]

lol what a farce. I bet the Judge is a Playstation fan

 

[Space Lynx]

lol what a farce

Sony needs to shut up and get back to its roots before its too late. They should come out ballin and and announce a bunch of PS2 remakes in an advanced game engine with quality of life improvements, not these half assed remasters they currently do, also they are sitting on the legal rights to many games that are still dormant, like the Dark Cloud series... like seriously stop this nonsense and get back to making lots of first party games that are great.

 

[awesomesauce]

hope it doesn’t pass

exemple look at starfield. no reason it wont launch on ps5 too since all Bethesda previous game launched on ps5

 

[Space Lynx]

hope it not pass

exemple look at starfield. no reason it wont launch on ps5 too since all Bethesda previous game launched on ps5

90% of us are going to play it on PC only anyway, so meh.

and sony is porting more and more games to PC too.

PC is life, PC is love, they wars of consoles can go either way honestly and it won't matter to me.

 

[Shihab]

Sony needs to shut up and get back to its roots before its too late.

Didn't know Sony changed their name to Federal Trade Commission.
I liked the old one better.

 

[64K]

This Acquisition has turned into a Soap Opera.

 

[Icon Charlie]

90% of us are going to play it on PC only anyway, so meh.

and sony is porting more and more games to PC too.

PC is life, PC is love, they wars of consoles can go either way honestly and it won't matter to me.

Hhahaha, your comment reminds me of this. PC Master Race series. Thanks man...

Console Wars - END OF PC MASTER RACE

 

[Why_Me]

90% of us are going to play it on PC only anyway, so meh.

and sony is porting more and more games to PC too.

PC is life, PC is love, they wars of consoles can go either way honestly and it won't matter to me.

Amen!!!

 

[oxrufiioxo]

hope it not pass

exemple look at starfield. no reason it wont launch on ps5 too since all Bethesda previous game launched on ps5

I have a PS5 and love it and even I'm annoyed by Sony's behavior over the last couple years and all the timed exclusives and very late PC ports.

I don't really care if this passes or not honestly but the exclusivity arguments are BS.

Even if Microsoft makes some of the IPs exclusives at least they will ship on day one on pc unlike Sony's business model.

90% of us are going to play it on PC only anyway, so meh.

and sony is porting more and more games to PC too.

PC is life, PC is love, they wars of consoles can go either way honestly and it won't matter to me.

Pretty much, although Microsoft should have still shipped this on Playstation even if it came with like a 6-12 month exclusivity window.

Guessing if Sony would allow gamepass on their system (never happening) Sony would have gotten it.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Don't worry MS will slip enough Benjamíns at the Capitol to pass this.

"Free 2TB OneDrive and Xbox Gamepass?! Case dismissed!"

 

[Wye]

MSFT/ATVI was ready for this an year ago.
FTC filed this in the last moment on purpose, to cause delays.
There are big interests at play here.

 

[Lycanwolfen]

As usual the good ole Microsoft way. If you cannot beat the competition buy them. I never wanted MS in the gaming market. But they did it and took away so many things. More titles went to xbox. More sega and classics went to xbox more remakes went to xbox. I deal with MS crap all day long fixing their problems with Servers, OS's and everything. I never wanted a game system from them. I have enough problems with their OS's Why I own a PS3 orginial since 2006 and its still working fine.

 

[JAB Creations]

lol what a farce. I bet the Judge is a Playstation fan

lol what a farce. I bet you're paid by Microsoft to partake in astroturfing to make it look like there is "organic" support for anti-capitalist reduction of competition

 

[Kinestron]

Don't worry MS will slip enough Benjamíns at the Capitol to pass this.

That’s what I was going to say too. The judge is just holding out until his offshore account gets bigger. This pretense of a fair ruling is comical at this point.