Ten CoD players have brought their own lawsuit to stop Microsoft from buying Activision-Blizzard

Two weeks ago, after a lot hoo hahaFederal Trade Commission bring a lawsuit for the purpose of blocking Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Yesterday, a group of CoD players did the same.

Individual consumer complaints from 10 #gamers claim the deal will give Microsoft “market power far beyond the video game industry”. Strength for them. Power for gamers.

Their argument is the same as that of the FTC. “Microsoft already controls one of the industry’s largest and most popular video game ecosystems,” the lawsuit claims, while “the proposed acquisition would give Microsoft an unparalleled position in the industry.” game industry, giving it the most number of must-have and iconic games. Franchising.

It said the acquisition would give Microsoft “the ability to thwart competitors, limit output, reduce consumer choice, raise prices, and further limit competition”.

Just like the FTC, one of their strongest arguments is that Microsoft could refuse to ship CoD on the Playstation and thus “competition could be significantly harmed”. They admit Microsoft has promise publicly to not do it, but said that “their past history implies these promises are illusory”. They also point to the possibility that Microsoft refuses to make games for the Mac.

I am completely incapable of assessing the probability of success of either lawsuit, but I was really excited to see ten plaintiffs listed as video game players along with consoles and games. that they choose in a professional court document. You can choose by yourself thisIf you like.

As always, this is Alice Bee’s work on why further consolidation in the game industry is not what you should want.