After the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued Microsoft (which will slow down the closing of the $68.7 billion deal that would make the company obtain Activision’s Blizzard King), things are getting interesting.
It’s worth pulling up what the FTC has written about the Redmond tech giant: “[…] the FTC pointed to Microsoft’s record of acquiring and using valuable gaming content to suppress competition from rival consoles, including its acquisition of ZeniMax, parent company of Bethesda Softworks (a well-known game developer). Microsoft decided to make several of Bethesda’s titles, including Starfield and Redfall Microsoft exclusives despite assurances it had given to European antitrust authorities that it had no incentive to withhold games from rival consoles.”
MLex, an investigative news agency, contacted the European Union, which responded, and the EU says otherwise about Microsoft. Although the content is behind a paywall, on the ResetEra forums, Idas (who was the first to post about the Microsoft-ActiBlizz deal) has published the EU’s response to MLex, which is translated in full into Hungarian:
“Microsoft didn’t mislead EU over ZeniMax deal, watchdog says in response to US concerns. Microsoft didn’t make any “commitments” to EU regulators not to release Xbox-exclusive content following its takeover of ZeniMax Media, the European Commission has said. US enforcers yesterday suggested that the US tech giant had misled the regulator in 2021 and cited that as a reason to challenge its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. “The commission cleared the Microsoft/ZeniMax transaction unconditionally as it concluded that the transaction would not raise competition concerns,” the EU watchdog said in an emailed statement.
The absence of competition concerns “did not rely on any statements made by Microsoft about the future distribution strategy concerning ZeniMax’s games,” said the commission, which has opened an in-depth probe into the Activision Blizzard deal and appears keen to clarify what happened in the previous acquisition. The EU agency found that even if Microsoft were to restrict access to ZeniMax titles, it wouldn’t have a significant impact on competition because rivals wouldn’t be denied access to an “essential input,” and other consoles would still have a “large array” of attractive content,” according to MLex confirmed that the text posted on the ResetEra forum is authentic).
Let’s go back to the FTC. In their document, they state the obvious: not only will Starfield and Redfall be Xbox-exclusive (on console, because they will be on PC), but so will The Elder Scrolls VI: “Microsoft’s past conduct provides a preview of the combined firm’s likely plans if it consummates the Proposed Acquisition, despite any assurances the company may offer regarding its plans. In March 2021, Microsoft acquired ZeniMax Media Inc. (“ZeniMax”), the parent company of the well-known game developer and publisher Bethesda Softworks LLC (“Bethesda”). Microsoft assured the European Commission (“EC”) during its antitrust review of the ZeniMax purchase that Microsoft would not have the incentive to withhold ZeniMax titles from rival consoles. But, shortly after the EC cleared the transaction, Microsoft made public its decision to make several of the newly acquired ZeniMax titles, including Starfield, Redfall, and Elder Scrolls VI, Microsoft exclusives.”
The Elder Scrolls VI doesn’t even have a release window yet (2025-2026?), and Xbox boss Phil Spencer has previously stated that Todd Howard’s game won’t be on PlayStation. Howard said in 2020 that it would be hard to imagine TES6 only being on Xbox and PC. And given the turnaround with Bethesda, it’s not out of the question that Microsoft would do the same with all Activision Blizzard games (including titles already available, e.g., Overwatch 2).
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