FTC v. Microsoft: all the news from the big Xbox courtroom battle – The Verge

FTC drops case against Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal

2025-05-22T17:47:23-04:00

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has officially dropped its case against Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The FTC filed an order to dismiss its complaint on Thursday, just days after it lost an appeal for a preliminary injunction to prevent Microsoft from finalizing its acquisition.

"The Commission has determined that the public interest is best served by dismissing the administrative litigation in this case," says the FTC in its filing. The filing brings an end to the FTC's fight to try and block Microsoft's $68.7 billion deal, nearly two years after it originally sought a temporary restraining order and injunction from a …

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FTC loses appeal to stop Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal that already happened

2025-05-07T15:38:57-04:00

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has lost its appeal of a ruling in its case against Microsoft's $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

In 2023, the FTC requested a preliminary injunction to prevent the companies from finalizing the deal while its legal challenge to the acquisition from 2022 was in progress.

"With control of Activision's content, Microsoft would have the ability and increased incentive to withhold or degrade Activision's content in ways that substantially lessen competition - including competition on product quality, price, and innovation," the FTC said in its complaint.

A district court judge denied the FTC' …

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FTC blasts Microsoft’s new ‘degraded’ Xbox Game Pass Standard tier and price increases

2024-07-18T19:51:45-04:00

The Federal Trade Commission has blasted Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass price increases in a filing to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Microsoft revealed last week that it's increasing PC Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate prices and planning to launch a new Game Pass Standard tier soon without day one access to first-party Xbox games.

The FTC calls this new Game Pass Standard tier a "degraded product" because new Game Pass users won't be able to sign up for the $10.99 Game Pass for Console, which includes day one game access. Instead, Xbox Game Pass Standard will be priced at $14.99 and won't include day one games, but it wil …

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Microsoft now says the CMA was ‘tough and fair’ over Activision Blizzard deal

2024-01-02T07:55:48-05:00

Microsoft president Brad Smith wasn't happy with the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) last year after the regulator blocked Microsoft's giant Activision Blizzard deal. Now that Microsoft has restructured its deal and won approval in the UK, Smith has kinder words for the CMA, describing the regulator as "tough and fair" in an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today program.

Smith originally criticized the CMA and said confidence in the UK had been "severely shaken" after the regulator moved to block Microsoft's $68.7 billion deal in April last year. He called it the "darkest day" for Microsoft in its four decades of working in Britai …

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Microsoft’s next Xbox, coming 2028, envisions hybrid computing

2023-09-19T03:58:36-04:00

Microsoft's new disc-less Xbox Series X is far from the only news that just leaked out of the FTC v. Microsoft case. The documents may also reveal Microsoft's far future plans for 2028 - by which the company believed it could achieve "full convergence" of its cloud gaming platform and physical hardware to deliver "cloud hybrid games."

"Our vision: develop a next generation hybrid game platform capable of leveraging the combined power of the client and cloud to deliver deeper immersion and entirely new classes of game experiences."

Those are the words on just one slide from a leaked presentation dubbed "The Next Generation of Gaming at Micr …

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Microsoft’s Phil Spencer says acquiring Nintendo would be ‘a career moment’

2023-09-19T03:43:01-04:00

Microsoft gaming CEO Phil Spencer.

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer would really like to buy Nintendo someday. In an August 2020 email to two top Microsoft marketing executives, Spencer wrote that "Nintendo is THE prime asset for us in Gaming" and that "getting Nintendo would be a career moment and I honestly believe a good move for both companies."

The emails were revealed as part of a tranche of leaked documents from the FTC v. Microsoft lawsuit. One executive, Takeshi Numoto, asked Spencer and Chris Capossela in an email titled "random thought" about why Microsoft isn't finding acquisition targets like Nintendo a "more attractive" way to "increase our consumer exposure a …

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This is Microsoft’s new disc-less Xbox Series X design with a lift-to-wake controller

2023-09-19T01:45:06-04:00

The planned ‘Brooklin’ Xbox Series X. | Image: FTC vs. Microsoft

Microsoft is planning to refresh its Xbox Series X console in 2024 with an all-new design and features. Codenamed Brooklin, the unannounced console refresh has been accidentally revealed in new FTC v. Microsoft documents this week.

The new Xbox Series X design looks a lot more cylindrical than the existing console and will ship without a disc drive. Internal confidential Microsoft documents reveal it has 2TB of storage (up from 1TB), a USB-C front port with power delivery, and an "all-new, more immersive controller."

The new controller, codenamed Sebile, is set to be announced early next year for $69.99 and will include an accelerometer wh …

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The Elder Scrolls VI will skip PS5 and isn’t coming until at least 2026

2023-09-18T09:40:45-04:00

A document released as part of the FTC v. Microsoft case confirms what was long expected: The Elder Scrolls VI isn't going to launch for a few years, and it isn't coming to PlayStation. According to the new chart, which Microsoft produced for the FTC, the next Elder Scrolls game isn't expected to launch until at least 2026 - something a Microsoft lawyer also mentioned in the court case. And much like Bethesda's most recent games - Starfield and Redfall - it'll be available on both PC and Xbox when it does launch.

In a statement about exclusivity attached to The Elder Scrolls VI section of the chart, which comes from an interview with Xbox h …

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Activision was briefed on Nintendo’s Switch 2 last year

2023-09-18T09:06:50-04:00

Rumors of a Nintendo Switch 2 announcement have grown recently after reports of developer demos at Gamescom last month. Now, we know that Activision was briefed on a next-generation Nintendo Switch last year, thanks to internal emails from the FTC v. Microsoft case.

Activision executives, including CEO Bobby Kotick, met with Nintendo executives in December 2022 to discuss a next-generation Switch. In an internal email chain, Chris Schnakenberg, head of Activision's platform strategy and partner relations, prepared a summary of the "Switch NG" (Switch next-generation) inside a document labeled "NG Switch Draft.pdf."

The document is heavily …

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Microsoft is planning to stream PC cloud games, internal emails reveal

2023-09-18T08:38:03-04:00

Microsoft has been planning to stream PC games over the cloud, internal emails from the FTC v. Microsoft case show. Microsoft currently streams games through its Xbox Cloud Gaming service, but it's limited to Xbox titles as the servers run specialized Xbox Series X chips. Microsoft has been working on leveraging its Azure servers to stream PC games over Xbox Cloud Gaming.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella emailed Xbox chief Phil Spencer, Kareem Choudhry, head of cloud gaming at Microsoft, and Sarah Bond, head of Xbox creator experience, in July 2021 after rumors emerged of Google turning Stadia into a white-label cloud gaming service for develope …

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