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Microsoft prevailed in the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s challenge to its Activision Blizzard acquisition, but the FTC did not withdraw before the deal closed. Microsoft completed the acquisition on October 13, 2023; the Ninth Circuit upheld a ruling allowing it to proceed on May 7, 2025; and the FTC dismissed its remaining administrative complaint on May 22, 2025. The FTC now lists the matter as closed. The transaction also proceeded under cloud-gaming arrangements involving Ubisoft, so the legal win was not a remedy-free approval worldwide.
What the FTC did—and what it did not do
The FTC pursued two related routes. In federal court, it asked for a preliminary injunction to prevent Microsoft from closing the acquisition while the agency’s separate administrative case proceeded. The administrative complaint sought to block the merger. These were connected parts of the challenge, but they were not the same proceeding.
The district court denied the requested injunction on July 10, 2023. The FTC appealed on July 12, 2023. The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court on May 7, 2025. After that appellate loss, the FTC issued an order on May 22, 2025, dismissing its administrative complaint. Its case page lists the matter as closed. The dismissal order says the Commission determined that the public interest was best served by ending the administrative litigation.
That sequence matters: the FTC’s final dismissal came after the acquisition had already closed and after the Ninth Circuit upheld the ruling that left it able to proceed. The Commission did not issue a new finding that the merger could never harm competition.
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Why the FTC opposed the acquisition
The FTC alleged that Microsoft could use Activision Blizzard’s valuable games to strengthen Xbox, Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Cloud Gaming while disadvantaging rival services. The agency’s concerns covered console gaming, multi-game subscriptions and cloud gaming. It pointed to franchises including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Diablo and Overwatch. Those were the agency’s allegations about possible competitive effects, not a final finding that every feared outcome would occur.
The FTC’s announcement of its challenge describes the theories it put forward. The case ultimately turned on whether the agency met the legal standard to stop this particular transaction, not on a general ruling about every future use of Activision games or every large gaming acquisition.
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How the challenge reached its end
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| January 18, 2022 | Microsoft announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard. |
| December 8, 2022 | The FTC filed an administrative complaint seeking to block the acquisition. |
| June 12, 2023 | FTC staff sought a federal court order preventing Microsoft from closing the deal while the administrative case proceeded. |
| July 10, 2023 | The district court denied the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction. |
| July 12, 2023 | The FTC noticed an appeal. |
| August 21, 2023 | Microsoft announced a restructuring that transferred specified cloud-streaming rights to Ubisoft. |
| October 13, 2023 | The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority accepted the restructured transaction, and Microsoft completed the acquisition. |
| May 7, 2025 | The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision. |
| May 22, 2025 | The FTC dismissed its administrative complaint. |
The lower court’s decision was a refusal to grant a preliminary injunction. It concluded that the FTC had not shown, at that stage, that the merger would substantially lessen competition in the relevant video-game library-subscription and cloud-gaming markets. That was not a blanket determination that every possible competitive concern was impossible. The Ninth Circuit opinion affirmed the denial of the injunction; it did not act as a regulator issuing a general approval of the merger.
Why Microsoft could close the deal in 2023
Microsoft completed the roughly $69 billion acquisition on October 13, 2023, as the FTC’s appeal was still unresolved. The district court had declined to block closing, and the U.K. regulator accepted a restructured version of the transaction that day. Microsoft’s completion announcement confirms the closing date.
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The FTC’s later appeal concerned the ruling denying its request to stop the deal; it did not undo the closing. The U.K. decision addressed a different regulator’s concerns and a modified transaction. The CMA had blocked the original proposal over cloud gaming, then accepted the restructured deal after the cloud-streaming rights arrangement with Ubisoft. Its announcement explains that distinction.
What Ubisoft’s cloud-gaming rights arrangement means
Under the revised arrangement accepted by the CMA, Ubisoft received specified Activision Blizzard cloud-streaming rights outside the European Economic Area. The scope covers current games and future PC and console games released during the following 15 years. In those non-EEA markets, Microsoft does not exclusively control those rights: Ubisoft controls licensing under the applicable arrangement. The CMA’s final decision sets out the rights and terms.
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The geographic qualification is important. The Ubisoft arrangement described here concerns rights outside the EEA; the EEA operates under separate European Commission commitments. It is therefore inaccurate to describe Ubisoft as the holder of all Activision Blizzard game rights everywhere, or to treat the CMA’s acceptance as clearance of the original, unmodified deal.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the FTC’s dismissal means for gamers
Microsoft owns Activision Blizzard, but ownership alone does not establish that any particular game will remain available on every platform or subscription indefinitely. Availability depends on the title, platform, region, distribution arrangements and business decisions. The Ubisoft arrangement applies to specified cloud-streaming rights in specified territories; it is not a promise that every game will appear on every streaming service.
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- Call of Duty and other franchises: The acquisition brought Activision Blizzard’s businesses and games into Microsoft Gaming, but the closed FTC case is not a guarantee of permanent availability on every console or service.
- Subscriptions: Whether an Activision Blizzard title is in a subscription catalog depends on the plan and catalog terms in effect. Consult the current Xbox Game Pass catalog rather than assuming every title is included.
- Cloud streaming: Ubisoft’s role concerns licensing specified rights outside the EEA. Xbox Cloud Gaming’s supported titles, regions and access requirements can vary; see Xbox Cloud Gaming for current service details.
The FTC’s case closure does not itself change a game’s platform availability, and it does not convert the regulatory commitments into a promise about future product catalogs.
What this outcome does—and does not—settle
The outcome settles this FTC matter: the Ninth Circuit left intact the denial of the injunction, the FTC dismissed its administrative complaint, and the agency lists the case as closed. It does not establish that all competitive concerns were unfounded, settle the broader policy debate about platform acquisitions, or mean that the FTC has endorsed the deal as harmless. Nor does it predict how regulators would assess a different transaction or future conduct under applicable law.
The U.S. and U.K. processes also should not be collapsed into one approval. The FTC challenged the deal through a U.S. court action and administrative proceeding. The CMA blocked the original transaction and later accepted a restructured version with Ubisoft cloud rights. The final transaction differed materially from Microsoft’s original proposal in that respect.
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