Microsoft is being sued by gamers to prevent its merger with Activision

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  • 10 self-described gamers are suing Microsoft in order to stop the company’s acquisition of Activision under the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914, which grants Americans the ability to sue firms for anticompetitive behaviour.

The plaintiffs, or “video gamers,” as they are referred to in the complaint, are concerned that “the [Microsoft and Activision] merger may substantially lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly;” this merger, the complaint states, would specifically be in violation of Section 7 of the Clayton Act, which states that acquisitions that diminish competition are prohibited under U.S. antitrust law. This concern is expressed in the complaint, which was filed today and obtained by Kotaku. The complaint notes that the Activision and Microsoft merger’s size and scope are worrisome, in addition to the fact that this most recent proposed union comes after a number of prior Microsoft purchases, going all the way back to its 2002 purchase of Rare and its 2014 purchase of Mojang.

The lawsuit highlights exactly how many major brands will fall under Microsoft’s corporate umbrella should the deal go through by thoroughly spelling out console, PC, and AAA games, as well as subscription services, as “Relevant Product Markets.” Just a few of the games mentioned include Halo, The Elder Scrolls, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Minecraft, World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, and Doom. It contends that through these games and services including Battle.net, the Microsoft Store, and Game Pass, Microsoft and Activision currently engage in direct competition. That competitive dynamic would be shattered by the merger.

The lawsuit asserts that if the deal goes through, Microsoft will have “outsized market dominance and the capacity to foreclose important inputs to competitors and significantly impair competition.” Competition is mentioned in the lawsuit with regard to consumer sales as well as industry competition to “recruit and retain expertise within specialised video game labour,” which would be “lessened” as a result of the merger.

Since its first announcement, the proposed merger between Microsoft and Activision has been a source of intense debate. The new complaint from the FTC is arguably the most worrisome for Microsoft. The government claims that, should this merger go through, it will seriously impair competition in the video game sector, pointing to Microsoft’s historical practise of giving priority to Xbox and Windows PCs as gaming platforms. The Activision deal, according to Microsoft, “would offer Call of Duty to more gamers and more platforms than ever before,” they disagreed.

Microsoft has been contacted by Kotaku for a response.

Speaking of Call of Duty, Microsoft has promised to keep making the game available on other platforms for at least ten years in response to complaints of its planned merger with Activision. Sony’s criticism of the acquisition has been characterised by Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer as an effort to “maintain its dominant position on console” and that it intends to grow by “making Xbox smaller.”

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