#activision blizzard

In a significant win for Microsoft, a California judge has denied the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) request for a preliminary injunction to block the company's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Instead, the record evidence pointed to more consumer access to Call of Duty and other Activision content. The FTC is still able to appeal the decision, but Judge Corley has sided with Microsoft's commitments to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation, bring the game to Nintendo Switch, and bring Activision's content to cloud gaming services. The evidence showed the Activision Blizzard deal is good for the industry and the FTC’s claims about console switching, multi-game subscription services, and cloud don’t reflect the realities of the gaming market. With the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft will have access to some of the most popular gaming franchises, including Call of Duty and World of Warcraft. The deal is also expected to reshape the future of gaming, with Microsoft and Activision Blizzard potentially becoming dominant players in the industry. Microsoft has signed a "10-year-commitment" to bring the popular Call of Duty franchise to Nintendo platforms for the very first time, provided that their acquisition of Activision Blizzard is closed. It can be recalled that Microsoft had recently pushed to acquire Activision Blizzard for over $68.8 billion last January. Read more in our articles including "Microsoft wins vs FTC, gets nod on USD 68 billion Activision-Blizzard acquisition" and "Microsoft signs 10-year deal to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo platforms".