Microsoft’s facing challenges to its Activision-Blizzard purchase from all sides, but it’s not backing down.
The FTC’s lawsuit alleges that the purchase of Activision-Blizzard-King by Microsoft would harm competition in the market and lead to less choice for gamers. Microsoft’s rebuttal is primarily to point out that it’s not only a fairly distant third-place player in the console market behind second-place Sony and market leader Nintendo, but also that it has essentially no presence in the mobile market.
Microsoft’s filing also mentions that it actually expects the deal to make Activision’s games “more broadly available” by expanding to additional platforms, “like Nintendo.” It does make a certain sort of sense that Microsoft’s technical expertise could help Activision bring its properties to more platforms, but to see it stated as a goal by Microsoft is pretty curious.
