It feels like an age ago that Microsoft announced it was going to add Activision to its roster of game developers that fall under the Xbox umbrella. They hit a lot of snags along the way, but now Microsoft is defiantly standing its ground even in the face of lawsuits.
The tech giant has been embroiled in controversy since they announced acquisition plans, with the US Federal Trade Commission and UK and European counterparts concerned over the antitrust nature of the the deal, which could give Microsoft a considerable monopoly over the market because of how many studios Activision Blizzard itself owns.
But, while Microsoft seems to be wooing the governing bodies outside of the US, who are thought to give the deal the green light in the coming weeks, the FTC is still pushing back after they voted to black the deal with a lawsuit in December.
However, a New York Post source suggests that if Microsoft can win over the UK and Europeans, then that will make the FTC's case significantly more difficult to pursue - and Microsoft knows it.
"They are going to cram this down the FTC’s throats,” the source says. Meaning, of course, that Microsoft is going to bullishly keep pushing to get the deal approved despite what the FTC might try to do.
And it's now wonder, because if the deal doesn't go through, Microsoft will owe Activision $3 billion in termination fees - yikes.
Regardless, we'll know more in the coming weeks as we find out the outcome of the investigations into the deal.