US government case against Microsoft to take over Activision Blizzard starts Tuesday

Tuesday is the first hearing in the lawsuit of the US regulator FTC against Microsoft for the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The FTC asks the court to stop the acquisition of the game publisher.

It is the first hearing in the case, but it is unclear when the US judge will hear the substance of the case, reports Reuters. With the case, the Federal Trade Commission wants to stop Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The regulator fears, among other things, that Microsoft will only make Activision Blizzard games available for its own Xbox consoles or will only allow the games on other platforms at a later time, such as Sony’s PlayStation console. “Microsoft has already shown that it can and will withhold content from games competitors,” the FTC said.

Microsoft denies in responses that it will only release games on Xbox after the acquisition and says that the acquisition mainly revolves around the mobile games market, where the software giant has played a marginal role so far. Activision Blizzard has games like Candy Crush in its range and is a big name in the field of mobile games.

The acquisition has been approved in Chile, but market authorities in other countries have objections. In the United Kingdom and the EU, among others, authorities are investigating the possible consequences of the takeover. Microsoft is looking to acquire the game publisher for $68.7 billion in what would be the largest games acquisition to date. The companies announced the deal last year.