Microsoft can now go ahead and close its giant deal.

"In a ruling submitted today, Judge Corley said the following:

Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision has been described as the largest in tech history. It deserves scrutiny. That scrutiny has paid off: Microsoft has committed in writing, in public, and in court to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for 10 years on parity with Xbox. It made an agreement with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty to Switch. And it entered several agreements to for the first time bring Activision’s content to several cloud gaming services. This Court’s responsibility in this case is narrow. It is to decide if, notwithstanding these current circumstances, the merger should be halted—perhaps even terminated—pending resolution of the FTC administrative action. For the reasons explained, the Court finds the FTC has not shown a likelihood it will prevail on its claim this particular vertical merger in this specific industry may substantially lessen competition. To the contrary, the record evidence points to more consumer access to Call of Duty and other Activision content. The motion for a preliminary injunction is therefore DENIED. "

  • Margot RobbieEnglish
    11•1 year ago

    Reminder that 343 is the only AAA studio that has never made a good game.

    I don’t have much faith in MS managing ActBlizz, and that’s coming from someone who generally likes Microsoft stuff. From what they did to Ensemble, Bungie, Lionhead, and Rare (where is my Viva Pinata 2, Phil?), they are way too content to just buy their way into stuff and stumble through everything by tossing money everywhere. I don’t think Phil Spencer is the right person to lead Xbox even if he is a “gamer”, because Xbox had just been ran poorly for years on the studio side, and adding Activision Blizzard isn’t going to improve things.