"Victory for gamers": FTC gives up fight against Activision Blizzard takeover

The FTC has given up its attempt to overturn the 69 billion US dollar takeover of Activision Blizzard. Microsoft is delighted.

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May 23, 2025 at 9:32 am CEST

2 min. read

By

Martin Holland

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is dropping the case against Microsoft's USD 69 billion takeover of video game developer Activision Blizzard. This is in the interest of the public, the authority explained in court, referring to the defeat in a US appeals court a few days ago. Microsoft President Brad Smith welcomed the move and spoke on the short message service X of a “victory for gamers across the country for common sense in Washington”. His company is grateful to the FTC for the decision.

FTC admits defeat

The takeover of Activision Blizzard is the largest in the video games market, and there was resistance primarily from antitrust authorities in the USA and the UK. The FTC initially tried to prevent Microsoft from completing the takeover in the short term with an injunction. However, this was rejected by a US federal district court in July 2023, whereupon the deal was approved. The FTC appealed against this, but the appeal was rejected. In addition, the FTC challenged the merger separately in internal administrative proceedings. Most recently, the FTC tried unsuccessfully to have the takeover frozen while these proceedings continued. Now that this has failed, it has conceded defeat.

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To get the takeover approved, Microsoft had made various concessions and, for example, committed to keeping “Call of Duty” on a par with the Xbox on the PlayStation for ten years. The Group had also agreed with Nintendo to port “Call of Duty” to the Switch and made several agreements to bring Activision's content to various cloud gaming services. With the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft not only wanted to strengthen its console and subscription business, but also expand its presence on the mobile market. This is because the studio also owns the extremely successful mobile division King, which develops “Candy Crush”.