Edited by: Sharya Sharma
Last updated: January 14, 2023, 6:05 PM IST
The FTC fears that Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard could negatively impact competition in the gaming industry.
Google and Nvidia have expressed their concerns to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the United States and join Sony on Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion.
Google and Nvidia, along with Sony, have raised concerns with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the United States over Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
The FTC fears that Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard could negatively impact competition in the gaming industry. They claim the deal would give Microsoft an unfair advantage by giving them control over a wide variety of franchises. In light of this, the FTC has scheduled an internal trial for August in which any company could be called upon to testify, according to a recent Bloomberg report.
To support their argument that Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard would give them an unfair advantage in the cloud, subscription and mobile gaming markets, Google and Nvidia have filed evidence with the FTC.
When providing information to the FTC about Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Nvidia, the graphics card market leader and owner of the GeForce Now streaming service, emphasized the importance of equal access to game titles. Google, the maker of the Stadia cloud gaming platform, has also expressed concern.
The acquisition would be anti-competitive, according to Sony, whose PlayStation console is the main competitor to Microsoft’s Xbox gaming brand. Microsoft was eager to offer several deals, including the offer to PlayStation, with a 10-year contract to get the latest releases of Call of Duty titles.
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