When Microsoft announced its plans to buy Activision Blizzard in 2022, it set off multiple lawsuits including a battle with the FTC that attempted to block the deal. Microsoft triumphed in that case, and now another lawsuit surrounding the merger has finally been put to rest.
Via the Associated Press, Microsoft has settled a lawsuit with a group of gamers over the Activision Blizzard deal that contended the acquisition was bad for the video game industry. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but both sides agreed to dismiss the case “with prejudice.” That means the lawsuit can’t be refiled.
Microsoft has settled a long running lawsuit by so-called “gamers” challenging its Activision Blizzard deal. The lawsuit has been dismissed “with prejudice,” so it won’t be refiled pic.twitter.com/VVkI9ICHf3
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) October 14, 2024
The agreement between Microsoft and the gamers also calls for both sides to pay their own legal fees. The suit was originally filed in a U.S. federal court in 2022. However, it may not be the last court battle to come out of the Activision deal. Earlier this year, the FTC filed a new brief with the federal court alleging that Microsoft’s changes to Game Pass have violated the promises that the company made to get the Activision Blizzard acquisition approved by federal regulators.
Microsoft subsequently filed its response against the FTC and took issue with its description of Game Pass as a “degraded product.” The U.S. federal court has yet to weigh in on either side’s brief. For now, nothing has changed.
