Microsoft And Gamers Settle Antitrust Lawsuit, Terms Are Undisclosed

Remember when gamers banded together and took Microsoft to court over their, at the time, proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard? The suit alleged that Microsoft was using the purchase to consolidate the gaming market, help Game Pass to create a monopoly, and that the deal could result in higher prices and less competition. While the initial antitrust filing found itself on some rocky ground, an update to the filing, based largely on testimony and emails uncovered during the FTC's own lawsuit, gave the group some more ammo.

Using emails from the FTC suit, the group further alleged that Microsoft was attempting to eliminate Sony from the gaming space and subsequent layoffs post-merger were cited as Microsoft's attempts to cancel projects and limit competition, while attempting to make certain titles exclusive to its platforms.

Well, that lawsuit has come to a close. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Microsoft and the group of gamers came to a settlement behind closed doors and both advised the court that the suit should be dismissed with prejudice. That last bit just means that the suit cannot be refiled again at some future date. Each party has agreed to pay its own legal and court fees.

The terms of the settlement? We don't know. They weren't disclosed. That last bit is what makes me the saddest. I assume there would have been some type of payout here, but disclosing the sum may have been an incentive for others to file similar suits. In a post-merger world, though, such "copycat" suits likely wouldn't have the potential "bite" that this suit had pre-merger. That, combined with the low probability of success on the side of the group of gamers, probably sealed the deal.