It was recently confirmed that the United States’ Federal Trace Commission (FTC) has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft in an attempt to block the company’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Interestingly, with the trial gearing up to move forward, it doesn’t seem like Microsoft and the agency have started negotiating a settlement agreement for the same yet.
In a recent telephonic pretrial hearing (vie Reuters), FTC attorney James Weingarten said that currently, the agency has had no “substantive” settlement discussions with Microsoft with regard to the proposed deal and the aforementioned antitrust lawsuit.
Of course, in previous weeks, Microsoft has voluntarily entered into agreements with Valve and Nintendo that will see Call of Duty releasing for Steam and Nintendo platforms for the next ten years, while a similar offer is also on the table for Sony (though it is yet to be accepted). It remains to be seen what (if any) other concessions Microsoft might choose to offer to help the process along in the future.
As part of its lawsuit, one of several arguments made by the FTC has made is that Microsoft made similar commitments to the European Commission regarding exclusivity of future Bethesda releases following its acquisition of ZeniMax Media. EU regulators, however, have said that no such commitments were made.