The American authorities believe that the acquisition of the video game publisher by the manufacturer of the Xbox console “would harm the competition”.
mo12345lemonde with AFP
The American competition authority, the FTC, filed a complaint Thursday, December 8 to block the repurchase for $ 69 billion (65 billion euros) of Activision Blizzard, successful video game publisher like Call of Duty, by Microsoft.
If the operation reached the end, Microsoft, manufacturer of the Xbox console and owner of several development studios, “would obtain control over leading franchises,” the agency said in a statement. This “would harm competition in the field of high-performance game consoles and subscription services by refusing or degrading the access of rivals to its popular content”, she adds.
The FTC takes for example the behavior of Microsoft after the acquisition of a more modest publisher, Zenimax, parent company of Bethesda Softworks. Once the operation was finalized, Microsoft decided to reserve the exclusivity of games as Starfield after having however assured European competition authorities that the company had no interest in not distributing the games on competing consoles, argues the agency.
an investigation opened by the European Commission
Now Activision, which has 154 million monthly active users worldwide and produces some of the most emblematic video games, “is one of the few video game developers in the world to create and publish video games High quality for multiple devices, including video game consoles, PCs and mobile devices, “said the FTC. “This could change if the buyout agreement is authorized,” says the agency.
“We continue to believe that this agreement will extend competition and create more opportunities for players and game developers,” reacted a Microsoft spokesperson in a message to the France-Presse agency, in Stressing that the group had proposed concessions to the FTC. “We have total confidence in our file and we are delighted with the prospect of presenting our case in court,” he added.
The operation is also in the cropper of Brussels, which opened in early November an in -depth investigation into its effects. The European Commission, guardian of competition in the European Union, had then explained that Microsoft could “lock access to video games from Activision Blizzard” for consoles and PC and that it is tempted to set up ” Eviction strategies for competing distributors “.
Such strategies could lead to “an increase in prices, a drop in quality and a reduction in innovation”, as well as a weakening of competition in the operating systems market for PC, advised the Commission .