The circus surrounding Microsoft’s attempted acquisition of Activision Blizzard has not yet left town, as a new ‘Switch model’ is discussed.
If anyone had hoped that Microsoft’s court victory over the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) would mean an end to the whole Activision Blizzard furore, they’re sadly mistaken. After a few days of consideration, the FTC has said it will appeal the decision and that could drag the whole affair on for even longer.
It’s more complicated than that though, as a restraining order preventing Microsoft from closing the deal ends on Friday, July 14 and it’s not clear that the FTC has time to stop it from going ahead.
In the meantime, the leaks just keep coming, with a new court document referring to ‘Microsoft’s commitment to make Call Of Duty available on an in-development Switch model.’
It took a while, but Microsoft recently conceded that Call Of Duty would not run well on the current Switch, but would presumably have less trouble on the already rumoured Switch 2.
Although given the vague description Microsoft could potentially be referring to a Switch Pro style console; although nothing else from other sources has implied that’s what Nintendo is planning, with everything pointing to a next gen successor being announced sometime next year.
It’s worth pointing out though that Microsoft’s lawyers made several inaccurate remarks all the way through the court case, often seeming to get dates wrong and referring to the follow-up to Skyrim as The Elder Scrolls 16.
If the legal battle does continue then who knows what other secrets will be revealed, especially after the debacle where Sony’s use of a cheap marker pen meant they ended up leaking their own company secrets to the world.
What will happen next is unclear, as everything depends on how quickly the Appeals court responds to the FTC. As you can imagine, Microsoft is not happy about the idea of having to do all this again and its best case scenario is that it can push the acquisition through this month.
‘The District Court’s ruling makes crystal clear that this acquisition is good for both competition and consumers,’ Microsoft’s Brad Smith said in a statement.
‘We’re disappointed that the FTC is continuing to pursue what has become a demonstrably weak case, and we will oppose further efforts to delay the ability to move forward.’
It’s also unclear what will happen between Microsoft and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which remains the only government agency to have successful opposed the deal.
The moment the FTC verdict was announced the two said they were talking again, in an attempt to resolve the issue. Although it’s unclear exactly how much ground the CMA is willing to give on the issue, despite the pressure against it.
The facts havenât changed. Weâre confident the U.S. will remain among the 39 countries where the merger can close.
We look forward to demonstrating the strength of our case in court – again.
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