While Microsoft Makes Deals, The FTC Demands Data

General news News Xbox Xbox News 03/16/2023

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The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has already requested documents from the Redmond-based tech giant twenty-four times, but Microsoft has failed to act. The legal team is fed up.

The FTC has announced that it is filing a complaint against Microsoft because, despite specifying what documents it wants to review, Microsoft has simply ignored the two dozen requests. The tech company says that the subject matter is too broad and too burdensome to provide the documents and that much of the data was available to the FTC in other files already provided. Now Microsoft says they simply don’t have enough time. And we are millionaires.

The FTC wants to know the details of the agreements with Nintendo and Nvidia. According to them, Microsoft is using these deals to knock regulators off their feet, while we don’t hear much detail about how the other Activision Blizzard King IPs, other than Call of Duty, would be exclusive. The case of ZeniMax Media is a case in point. Remember that when Starfield was announced in 2018, Bethesda only said it would be next-gen.

But with the acquisition of ZeniMax, the PlayStation 5 version (or at least plans for it!) was likely stopped immediately by Microsoft, and that’s why the FTC is worried about Microsoft’s plans. It is also why the FTC wants to review Microsoft documents related to the exclusivity of ZeniMax-related content. It is the same thing Microsoft did to Sony when it wanted to hear about Sony’s third-party exclusivity agreements! In addition, the FTC is also interested in Redmond’s next-gen video game economy. (Likely tied to having Xbox games on all platforms, perhaps from the cloud.)

Meanwhile, Microsoft is suspiciously dealing with companies we’ve never heard of! It recently signed a ten-year deal with Boosteroid and now with Ubitus. Both companies offer cloud platforms, and let’s face it: it’s all about Microsoft continuing to consolidate in the gaming industry. These are the deals the company is pointing the finger at to own Activision Blizzard King…

Source: PSU, WCCFTech, WCCFTech

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Angyal Anikó

Anikó, our news editor and communication manager, is more interested in the business side of the gaming industry. She worked at banks, and she has a vast knowledge of business life. Still, she likes puzzle and story-oriented games, like Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments, which is her favourite title. She also played The Sims 3, but after accidentally killing a whole sim family, swore not to play it again. (For our office address, email and phone number check out our IMPRESSUM)