The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sued to block Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of gaming giant Activision Blizzard.
The filing in a San Francisco federal court seeks a temporary restraining order and injunction on the proposed acquisition. Activision Blizzard makes hit games like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and the recently released Diablo IV. It also owns the popular Guitar Hero franchise, which saw its last new entry in 2015. Subsequent servers for previously released Guitar Hero games have been shut down and are now only playable on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console.
Microsoft has struggled to win favor with governments across the globe with this acquisition. Regulators in the United States and the United Kingdom argue it could suppress competition in the video game market. To help allay those fears, Microsoft agreed to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo for at least ten years.
The contract between Microsoft and Activision says the deal must close by July 18. In its injunction, the FTC argues that if the deal closes before that date, it would be difficult or nearly impossible to reverse its course.
“Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have represented in the past that they cannot close their deal due to antitrust reviews of the transaction in other jurisdictions,” the FTC said in a statement. “But Microsoft and Activision have not provided assurances that they will maintain that position. In light of that, and public reporting that Microsoft and Activision Blizzard are considering closing their deal imminently, we have filed a request for a temporary restraining order to prevent them from closing while review continues.”
U.K regulators made the decision to block the acquisition earlier this year. Meanwhile, European regulators representing the 27-nation bloc approved the acquisition on the condition that Microsoft make some promises to boost competition in the cloud-gaming market. China, Japan, Brazil, and South Korea have each given the deal their rubber stamp of approval.