Microsoft says it will open up the Xbox store in light of the Activision Blizzard deal

techcrunch.com:

Microsoft is working to warm lawmakers up to its plans to bring a collection of the world’s most popular video games under its wing. The company announced its intention to buy Activision Blizzard last month in a deal that would be worth $68.7 billion — the largest gaming acquisition of all time, if the deal goes through.

The acquisition isn’t exactly ill-fated, but it’s a risky time for Microsoft to attract attention from regulators. In the U.S., lawmakers and regulatory agencies have largely focused on some of the tech giant’s peers, particularly Meta (formerly Facebook), Google, Apple and Amazon. Microsoft’s name doesn’t come up in contentious conversations about social networks, advertising or online marketplaces, so the massive company has managed to mostly fly under the radar in recent years in spite of its size.

With the Activision Blizzard deal on the table, that’s unlikely to last. Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that the proposed acquisition will be reviewed by the FTC, an agency now chaired by Lina Khan, an antitrust scholar keen to disrupt escalating consolidation in the tech industry.

Microsoft President Brad Smith addressed regulators directly in a new blog post Wednesday, striking a cooperative tone and outlining a set of “Open App Store Principles” that the company will adopt in light of proposed regulation and its own plans to buy a cluster of the world’s most popular gaming titles.

Microsoft framed the new ideology as a preemptive effort to accommodate regulatory changes, but it’s also clearly an appeal to the federal government to sign off on the acquisition:

“… We recognize that the emerging new era of tech regulation brings with it both benefits and risks, not just for a single company but for our