European Commission argues FTC's Microsoft lawsuit is unjustified

gamedeveloper.com:

The FTC's recent lawsuit against Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition is receiving from pushback from the European Commission. In a report from MLex (and released by ResetEra), the European regulator argued against the FTC's notion that Microsoft has been dishonest in making Starfield and Redfall into Xbox exclusives. 

Potentially locking off games to Xbox was a point of contention in the FTC's statement (as it has been repeatedly during this acquisition). The US organization used Bethesda's upcoming pair of titles as examples of what the Xbox maker could do with Activision Blizzard's stable of games, saying that Microsoft "has already shown that it can and will withhold content from its gaming rivals."

Similar complaints were leveled against Microsoft back in November, when the EU launched its full investigation into the acquisition. Its words against the FTC stop just short of saying the US regulatory board is lying about its claims against the game publisher.

Here, the EU has argued that neither Starfield or Redfall can be used as examples of withholding content, as Microsoft has frequently indicated both titles would be Xbox exclusive. "Microsoft didn't make any 'commitments' to EU regulators not to release Xbox-exclusive content following its takeover of ZeniMax Media," the EU told MLex. 

"The commission cleared the Microsoft/ZeniMax transaction unconditionally as it concluded that the transaction would not raise competition concerns."

Further, the EU added that Microsoft choosing to make particular games exclusive wouldn't be denying other publishers an "essential input" even if Bethesda titles were permanently siloed off to the Xbox ecosystem.

Microsoft, for its part, told the EU