Gamers once again repressed by the state as judge throws out lawsuit against Activision acquisition

pcgamer.com:

It's not been a bad week for Microsoft. Not only has the UK Competition and Markets Authority decided that, actually, it doesn't have a problem(opens in new tab) with the Xbox-maker taking ownership of Call of Duty at all, but now GamesRadar reports that the dread hand of a California judge has thrown out a so-called «Gamers' Lawsuit» against Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. 

The Gamers' Lawsuit was brought against Microsoft by a group of ten Call of Duty fans(opens in new tab) in December last year. Echoing arguments that have also been voiced by the US Federal Trade Commission(opens in new tab), they said that Activision was one of «only several independent game publishers in the world that are capable of making the highest production quality and most graphics-intensive videogames,» and that any consolidation of those companies would invariably have a negative impact on videogame players. 

They also claimed that Microsoft had lied about not having an incentive to limit the availability of Bethesda games before it acquired that company(opens in new tab) in 2021, boding poorly for any similar promises it made about Activision Blizzard games. I admit, the term «Gamers' Lawsuit» has an effect on me like a bucket of cold water on a cat, but I don't think either of those arguments is totally unreasonable. 

I guess that's why I'm not a judge, because apparently those arguments don't hold water in California. On March 20, in court documents shared by FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller(opens in new tab), Judge Jacqueline Corley granted Microsoft's motion to dismiss the suit out of hand, noting that «The Complaint does not plausibly allege the merger creates a reasonable probability of anticompetitive effects in any