Activision exec says Last of Us HBO success proves Microsoft buyout isn\u2019t a threat HBOAn Activision Blizzard executive has put forth the argument that The Last of Us\u2019 HBO success proves the pending Microsoft buyout won\u2019t hurt PlayStation. It\u2019s been a year since Microsoft announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard for nearly $70 billion. The unprecedented merger continues to stir up quite a bit of drama, too, with the likes of Sony ringing alarm bells. Notably, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) isn\u2019t in support of the proposed purchase, either. The agency filed a lawsuit to prevent the deal in December 2022, citing concerns that a buyout could harm competition in the console space. Microsoft has since responded to the suit in a formal manner. But an Activision Blizzard executive recently threw a new argument into the ring. ABK exec says Last of Us proves Microsoft buyout should continue While applauding episode three of HBO\u2019s TLoU, Activision Blizzard\u2019s CCO and EVP of Corporate Affairs, Lulu Cheng Meservey, thought it as good a time as any to talk shop about the Microsoft acquisition. The executive wrote to the FTC account on Twitter, highlighting the show\u2019s record-breaking success. Meservey went on to note that Sony and PlayStation Productions are behind the adaptation based on the best-selling PlayStation IP. The relevance of this becomes clear later in the thread, when the exec laments the FTC\u2019s attempt to block Microsoft\u2019s Activision deal on the grounds that \u201cMicrosoft could \u2018suppress competition\u2019 from rival consoles by leveraging Activision games.\u201d According to Meservey, Sony need not worry about such things since its warchest of acclaimed IP allows it to dominate as the market leader in console gaming. And The Last of Us on HBO renewing interest in the games proves \u201cSony is \u2018the first of us\u2019 \u2013 and they will be just fine without the FTC\u2019s protection.\u201d Using The Last of Us\u2019 HBO series as an argument for why the Microsoft purchase should move forward is an interesting tactic. As many commenters to the thread noted, however, it\u2019s not the soundest rationalization. After all, a longtime Sony-owned studio created the IP, whereas the FTC\u2019s concerns lie with Microsoft potentially using legacy third-party properties to gain a foothold over the competition. System-sellers such as Call of Duty sit at the forefront of this particular bit of unease. Microsoft has made clear its intention to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for as long as possible. But it seems the back and forth won\u2019t come to an end anytime soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Activision exec says Last of Us HBO success proves Microsoft buyout isn\u2019t a threat HBOAn Activision Blizzard executive has put forth the argument that The Last of Us\u2019 HBO success proves the pending Microsoft buyout won\u2019t hurt PlayStation. It\u2019s been a year since Microsoft announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard for nearly $70 billion. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78341\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}