Nvidia, Google join Microsoft lawsuit

Google and Nvidia have reportedly become involved in a lawsuit from the FTC targeting a proposed $100b acquisition by Microsoft.

Google and Nvidia have reportedly become involved in a lawsuit filed by the US Federal Trade Commission against Microsoft concerning its attempted $100 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

The report comes courtesy of Bloomberg, who says that Nvidia and Google have expressed concerns to the FTC about the acquisition. The companies reportedly provided information backing up one of the FTC’s key concerns about the acquisition, which was that Microsoft could potentially gain an unfair advantage in the cloud gaming market.

Bloomberg says that Nvidia isn’t directly opposed to the acquisition, stressing “the need for equal and open access to game titles”. Both Nvidia and Google could be called to testify in the upcoming trial, an evidentiary hearing for which is expected to take place in August.

Much of the public discussion about the proposed acquisition has been about Microsoft’s potential ownership of the Call of Duty franchise. Sony has said that Microsoft has an incentive to make the title exclusive to its own platforms, which could harm Sony’s ability to compete.

Call of Duty would be owned by Microsoft should the acquisition go ahead. Picture: Activision Blizzard

Microsoft refuted these claims rather publicly, announcing in December that it had signed a deal to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo platforms for the next ten years, and that it was committed to launching Call of Duty games on Steam on day one for the next decade, rather than making the series exclusive to the Microsoft Store.

Microsoft made further Call of Duty concessions later in the month, not only offering Sony a similar 10-year deal, but offering Sony the option to put the games on its own PlayStation Plus subscription service should the deal go ahead.

The company also hit back at Sony’s concerns about exclusivity of certain franchises, pointing out that a number of PlayStation exclusive games from third parties are barred from ever coming to Xbox.

Microsoft has said that much of its interest in Activision Blizzard is due to its mobile assets, such as Candy Crush developer King. Photo: Ina FASSBENDER / AFP

Microsoft claimed that games such as Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Bloodborne, and the recently announced Silent Hill 2 remake won’t ever come to Xbox consoles, because Sony entered into arrangements “which require the exclusion of Xbox from the set of platforms these publishers can distribute their games on”.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.