Microsoft and Activision Blizzard respond to FTC's acquisition lawsuit
Weeks after the FTC filed a lawsuit in the hopes of blocking Microsoft's merger of Activision Blizzard, both game companies have released their own individual statements against the US regulator.
In Microsoft and Activision Blizzard's statements, the respective makers of Xbox and Call of Duty take particular umbrage with the FTC's (and other regulators') claims of the acquisition minimizing competition in the game industry, and that Microsoft would isolate any of the publisher's games to strictly its ecosystem.
Microsoft argues that it wouldn't withhold any of Activision Blizzard's franchises (and Call of Duty more specifically), primarily because there's no financial reason to do so.
"The acquisition of a single game by the third-place console manufacturer cannot upend a highly competitive industry, particularly so when the manufacturer has made clear it will not withhold the game," wrote Microsoft. "The fact that Xbox’s dominant competitor has thus far refused to accept Xbox’s proposal does not justify blocking a transaction that will benefit consumers."
After the FTC filed its suit, the European Commission pointed out that the FTC's claims of Microsoft withholding future Bethesda titles Starfield and Redfall as Xbox exclusives was untrue. Microsoft made a similar retort in its response, saying those two games had "no relevance to the current transaction."
In that same paragraph, Microsoft confirms that three unnamed Bethesda games, "all of which are designed to be played primarily alone or in small groups," will be Xbox and PC exclusive. That third and final game may end up being The Elder Scrolls VI.
On a similar, albeit more dramatic track, Activision Blizzard wrote that the FTC "has not only lost sight of the
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