US consumer advocates ask FTC to investigate Microsoft’s ActiBlizz buyout over “serious competition issues”

Call of Duty Warzone Season 2 — (Image credit: Activision)

A collective of consumer advocacy groups has called on America’s antitrust agency to dig into Activision Blizzard’s sale to Microsoft.

The groups addressed a letter to the chair of the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday, March 1, that highlighted potential problems in consumer protection, data privacy and wage suppression should the sale go ahead.

“Gamers are already raising concerns that the merger will result in popular games becoming exclusive to Microsoft hardware,” they write. “The advent of streaming games and Microsoft’s existing cloud infrastructure offers further opportunities for the corporation to stamp out smaller market participants through anticompetitive conduct. By absorbing another major gaming studio and publisher, Microsoft will grow its ability to control content and self-preference its own at the expense of market competitors.”

Ultimately, they say, “Microsoft’s expanding role in the gaming market may result in the company using its leverage to raise subscription prices and limit options, among other possible consumer harms.” In other words: Game Pass might be a bargain right now, but if its prices go up, we might not have many other places to turn.

“Workers at Activision Blizzard have powerfully mobilized over the past year to shine a light on a workplace culture rife with sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and instances of assault that top management swept under the rug,” the groups write. “Now, as those workers seek to form a union to address their collective interests, the potential takeover by Microsoft threatens to further undermine workers’ rights and suppress wages.”

Want to see the results of Microsoft’s buyouts? Here’s the best of Game Pass.

Jeremy is a freelance editor and writer with a decade’s experience across publications like GamesRadar, Rock Paper Shotgun, PC Gamer and Edge. He specialises in features and interviews, and gets a special kick out of meeting the word count exactly. He missed the golden age of magazines, so is making up for lost time while maintaining a healthy modern guilt over the paper waste. Jeremy was once told off by the director of Dishonored 2 for not having played Dishonored 2, an error he has since corrected.