The biggest acquisition in the history of the game is released! Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard has been finalized

Today, the largest acquisition in the history of gaming – Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard has made new progress. The US FTC (FTC) officially announced a few days ago that it will withdraw the lawsuit against the acquisition. It said that it will continue to pursue the deal that has long been completed’not in the public interest ‘. Based on this, the game that lasted for nearly two years has finally settled. According to the data, in January 2022, Microsoft announced the acquisition of Activision Blizzard for a total price of nearly 69 billion US dollars (about 496.10 billion yuan), which set a record in the history of the game industry. After the acquisition is completed, Microsoft’s game business revenue has jumped to the third largest in the world, after Tencent and Sony. More than 30 of Activision Blizzard’s top IPs will help the Xbox Game Pass (XGP) game library exceed 5,000, the number of users has increased from 25 million before the acquisition to 40 million, and the annual subscription revenue exceeds 6 billion US dollars (about 43.14 billion yuan). When the game industry is amazed at the high value and strong competitiveness of this acquisition, the US FTC immediately poured cold water on the acquisition in full swing. It intervened in the investigation on antitrust grounds, accusing Microsoft of possible abuse of content control. The agency believes that Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty series sells more than 25 million copies a year, accounting for 12% of Sony’s PS platform annual revenue. According to FTC simulation data, if Microsoft removes the series from PS, it may lead to a reduction of 3 million units in Sony console sales annually, and more than 40% of subscription service users churn. In addition, the FTC is concerned that Microsoft will form a monopoly in the emerging Cloud gaming market by integrating Activision Blizzard’s Cloud gaming resources. Due to the consideration of monopolistic competition, in December 2023, the FTC formally filed a lawsuit against Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, asking for the transaction to be terminated, and applied for a preliminary injunction in August the following year, but it was rejected by the federal court. The court held that Microsoft’s commitment to keep Call of Duty on the PlayStation platform for 10 years and open Activision Blizzard content to third-party Cloud gaming service providers was enough to ease competition concerns. Before that, the European Union had approved the deal in May 2023. At that time, Microsoft had issued a document saying that it had received the green light from European Union regulators, albeit with some conditions attached. The European Union Commission believes that Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard will not reduce competition in the console market by itself, but it may affect the cloud gaming sector in the next few years. To gain support from the European Union, Microsoft has made two major promises. First, it will provide consumers in the European Economic Area with a 10-year free license, allowing them to stream all current and future Activision Blizzard PC and console games they have licensed through any Cloud gaming streaming service of their choice. The second is to provide a corresponding free license to Cloud gaming streaming service providers, allowing players in the European Economic Area to stream any Activision Blizzard PC and console games. Ultimately, the European Union Commission accepted Microsoft’s proposed solution and approved Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Similarly, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) initially rejected the deal on the grounds of “stifling cloud gaming innovation,” but eventually released it after Microsoft sold the cloud gaming rights and required the establishment of an independent regulatory committee to monitor market data. Now, the FTC has dropped its lawsuit against the acquisition, moving another mountain in front of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard. However, although the dust of this acquisition case has been settled, there are not many risks that Microsoft will face next. First, in the years of multi-party games, Activision Blizzard’s revenue has declined, and some studios have lost talent due to cultural nuance. Second, although the FTC has withdrawn its lawsuit, according to the plan, the FTC can also start administrative trial proceedings in July to require the separation of the merged company. Of course, this probability may be low. After several years of games, Microsoft has finally completed the regulatory review in 38 countries and regions such as the European Union and the United Kingdom, clearing the global regulatory obstacles and completely ending this legal dispute. In response, Microsoft President Brad Smith said the FTC’s decision to drop the case was a “victory for players across the United States and a victory for political reason in Washington, D.C.”