The Gamersâ„¢ are rising up.
A grid layout list showing a variety of Call of Duty titles available for sale on the PlayStation Store

About two weeks back, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that they have filed a lawsuit in an effort to block the $69 billion (USD) acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft. Yesterday, a new lawsuit was filed in an effort to stop this acquisition, this time by a group of Call of Duty players, or "video gamers" as the suit refers to them.

This new lawsuit is a private consumer complaint from 10 players. The suit claims that the acquisition would give Microsoft "far-outsized market power in the video game industry." Much like the FTC's lawsuit, the lawsuit from the Gamers say that "Microsoft already controls one of the industry's most popular and largest video game ecosystems." Continuing on, the suit claims that "the proposed acquisition would give Microsoft an unrivaled position in the gaming industry, leaving it with the greatest number of must-have games and iconic franchises."

The players claim that Microsoft would be able "to foreclose rivals, limit output, reduce consumer choice, raise prices, and further inhibit competition." I must ask where these lawsuits are when other companies, such as Sony, make their own acquisitions. Microsoft has already promised to keep games, such as those in the Call of Duty franchise, as multiplatform titles for the foreseeable future. Microsoft was also one of the last of the major industry players to relent on increasing the prices of games.

The lawsuit from the Call of Duty players are mostly focused on the argument that Microsoft could just stop shipping Call of Duty on PlayStation. They feel that this would cause significant harm to competition. They at least acknowledge that Microsoft promised to keep Call of Duty as a multi-platform release for at least the next ten years. However, they say "their past history implies these promises are illusory." They cite Microsoft's acquisition of ZeniMax in the complaint, claiming that Microsoft had assured the European Commission that they would not limit ZeniMax titles on rival consoles. They then go on to cite that Starfield is an Xbox and PC exclusive title, which allegedly contradicts the statements to the European Commission.

The full suit includes a list of all ten plaintiffs along with their preferred gaming platform and favorite games. You can read all of those bios, along with a lot of additional legal jargon and explanations of everything from who Microsoft is to what a "video game publisher" is via Bloomberg Law.