It is no secret that Microsoft made waves within the wider gaming industry when the tech giant announced its intentions to purchase Activision Blizzard King for $68.7 billion. With the deal set to be a record-breaking industry acquisition if it is to go through, it is no wonder that it has drawn huge swathes of attention as it goes through the legal process of being officially approved and confirmed.
The roller coaster deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard recently took a significant turn with the announcement that the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, will be taking significant action to halt the purchase. Despite the discourse surrounding whether this FTC action is necessary, warranted, or even faulty per the EU's remarks on it, it remains clear that the agency is seemingly ignoring similar behavior that Sony has already exhibited.
FTC's Complaint Against Microsoft's Activision Blizzard Deal
Microsoft has had to face significant scrutiny and pushback surrounding the potential acquisition of Activision Blizzard, with many key industry figures raising concerns about the potential monopolization of specific gaming spaces that this could foster. These complaints are only amplified by the fact that Microsoft acquired Elder Scrolls and Fallout studio Bethesda in 2021.
As a result of the FTC's personal understanding of the deal, the agency has officially filed a legal complaint against Microsoft in an attempt to halt the deal from going through. More specifically, the FTC has cited how the deal would allow Microsoft to significantly suppress its industry competitors with exclusives, citing how Starfield will be an Xbox exclusive, while also inflating the position of its own hardware and subscription-based services. Given how Microsoft's highly successful Xbox Game Pass service reportedly has over 30 million users, it is perhaps understandable as to why the implications of this acquisition are being so closely examined by regulators.
The Ignored Behavior of Sony
It should be mentioned that a lot of criticism of the Microsoft-Activision deal comes directly from Sony and PlayStation, the arguably largest direct competitor of Microsoft and Xbox. For example, PlayStation executive Jim Ryan has been extremely vocal in his criticism of the deal, going as far as to fly to Brussels to talk to regulators about the potential harms of the acquisition.
Given how Xbox has maintained its desire to keep many Activision Blizzard IPs accessible to all platforms, going as far as to sign CoD deals with Nintendo and Steam, many have regarded these Sony-led criticisms as hypocritical, and coming from a place of self-preservation as opposed to genuine concern. Due to the increased scrutiny placed on PlayStation thanks to its position on the Activision acquisition, many are also positing how much of the behavior that the FTC is worried about Microsoft exhibiting post-deal is actually already being exhibited by Sony itself.
For example, PlayStation has long been typified for its high-value exclusives, with massive franchises such as The Last of Us, God of War, and Uncharted all being exclusive to PlayStation at a console level despite their continued success. Another example comes in the FTC's worry that Xbox may begin inflating the price of its hardware after the acquisition, despite PlayStation having already raised the prices of PS5 consoles in several regions around the world in August.
Of course, PlayStation is additionally still in contract with Call of Duty over exclusivity benefits, with Sony already receiving huge console-specific perks for the very franchise that it is expressing so much concern against Microsoft becoming involved with. While the legal complaint from the FTC can be regarded as healthy scrutiny for such a high-value business acquisition, it remains that the pre-existing and continued behavior of Sony is seemingly being overlooked in the broader discussion.