Microsoft responded to the suit filed by the Federal Trade Commission by accusing the United States of violating its constitution and constitutional rights to fair and fair arbitrage.
Call of Duty remains the focus of the regulators on why Microsoft shouldn’t own Activision Blizzard.
Microsoft has already laid out the advantages of its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, saying that it will be good for the whole video game industry. The tech giant emphasized its willingness to make concessions so that the deal happens. It’s already claimed that it offered for ten years to put Call of Duty on the PlayStation, Nintendo and even Steam. Microsoft even offers nothing to put Call of Duty on the PlayStation Plus. The government has a lawsuit against Microsoft’s attempt to purchase one of the biggest video game publishers and sells its own, but did not receive positive reviews.
In its defense against the FTC lawsuit, the lawyer explained several issues in the suit. Essentially, the main point is that the proceedings violate Microsoft’s right to procedural due process under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. The FTC isn’t neutral anymore because it “prejudged the merits of the immediate action.”
The FTC was the principal concern of calling duty. Activision Blizzard’s trademark first-person franchise is one of the world’s best-selling video games with over 425 million units sold since 2003. If you place this in context, it’s easy to see why FTC expresses concern about giving Microsoft the rights to Call of Duty. It doesn’t seem that as long as Microsoft claims a single franchise, “the best way to survive is to create a competitive world.”
Activision Blizzard doesn’t just own Duty, it also owns Warcraft, Starcraft and more.
Call of Duty topped the video game chart the past two decades. It’s already a little clear that a Call of Duty installment sells the highest copies every year. In fact, it’s a lot more surprising to have another game outsell Call of Duty, though most of all it happens.
Having said that, Microsoft has made several strong points about the importance of keeping Call of Duty a multiplatform game. Call of Duty isn’t all that big as Call of Duty, because it’s on the Xbox, too. We don’t want an Xbox exclusive to be as successful. But of course, you can’t just invalidate the concerns raised by the federal court of Appeals and other regulators. At this point, nobody can predict exactly how all that is going to happen.
The only thing which I’m certain is that we’ll find out more about what Microsoft has planned for the future, as it continues to release public documents to convince the powers it must own Activision Blizzard. Microsoft has three upcoming Xbox exclusives, as well as one of its recent acquisitions, Bethesda Softworks.
As soon as Microsoft buys, it’s really interesting to find out how the dynamics within Activision Blizzard will play out.
Fingers crossed, one of these documents will reveal that Microsoft will host a showcase by early next year.