US Supreme Court denies fan lawsuit to block the Activision Blizzard acquisition

A group of players that filed a lawsuit in an attempt to block Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard have had their emergency request denied by the Supreme Court.

The details:

• Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan denied the group's emergency request for an injunction on Saturday (via VGC), attempting to halt the deal's completion after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed its own appeal with the Ninth Circuit court. Both the fans and the FTC lost their respective cases, leaving Microsoft to pursue the publisher.
• In December 2022, a group of ten players from New Jersey, Mexico, and California filed a complaint in federal court (via Reuters) claiming that the acquisition could harm competition in the gaming industry and even result in a monopoly, which is a violation of the Clayton Act. They claimed to have "the express interest and intent in ensuring that the industry remains competitive, with the utmost innovation, output, choice, and price constraints, now and in the future," and while most claimed to play games on multiple platforms, eight of them played on PlayStation, compared to three Xbox players.
• Following Microsoft's legal victory and the failure of the FTC's appeal, the company is now free to close the deal in the US, leaving the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) as the only remaining hurdle. The CMA has agreed to extend the deadline for a final decision on whether it will continue to block the acquisition to give Microsoft more time to address the concerns that led to the initial decision.

More Microsoft news:

• Xbox Live Gold will be phased out in favor of a new Game Pass tier called "Game Pass Core." All current Gold features will be retained, except the Games With Gold program, which will be replaced by a selection of 25 Game Pass titles.
• Microsoft has announced a new Xbox reporting system that allows players to manually upload 60 seconds of inappropriate in-game voice chat to Xbox's support team. The company chose to focus on in-game chat because it is frequently the most used form of communication outside of the platform's party system.