WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has moved to block the largest deal in the history of the video gaming industry by filing an administrative complaint seeking to stop Microsoft’s $69 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard, which owns such blockbuster franchises as Call of Duty. 

The FTC alleges the deal, which would have made Microsoft the third largest player in the video game publishing industry, would enable the “maker of Xbox would gain control of top video game franchises, enabling it to harm competition in high-performance gaming consoles and subscription services by denying or degrading rivals’ access to its popular content.”

In the administrative complaint issued on Dec. 8, the FTC pointed to Microsoft’s record of acquiring and using valuable gaming content to suppress competition from rival consoles, including its acquisition of ZeniMax, parent company of Bethesda Softworks (a well-known game developer). Microsoft decided to make several of Bethesda's titles including Starfield and Redfall Microsoft exclusives despite assurances it had given to European antitrust authorities that it had no incentive to withhold games from rival consoles, the FTC alleged. 

“Microsoft has already shown that it can and will withhold content from its gaming rivals,” said Holly Vedova, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. “Today we seek to stop Microsoft from gaining control over a leading independent game studio and using it to harm competition in multiple dynamic and fast-growing gaming markets.”

The FTC complaint also stressed that Microsoft’s Xbox Series S and Series X are one of only two types of high performance video game consoles and that Microsoft also offers a leading video game content subscription service called Xbox Game Pass, as well as a cutting-edge cloud-based video game streaming service. 

The complaint also noted that Activision is one of only a very small number of top video game developers in the world that create and publish high-quality video games for multiple devices, including video game consoles, PCs, and mobile devices. 

It produces some of the most iconic and popular video game titles, including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Overwatch, and has millions of monthly active users around the world, according to the FTC’s complaint. Activision currently has a strategy of offering its games on many devices regardless of producer.

In a press release announcing the suit, the FTC said that “with control over Activision’s blockbuster franchises, Microsoft would have both the means and motive to harm competition by manipulating Activision’s pricing, degrading Activision’s game quality or player experience on rival consoles and gaming services, changing the terms and timing of access to Activision’s content, or withholding content from competitors entirely, resulting in harm to consumers.”

The Commission vote to issue the complaint was 3-1, with Commissioner Christine S. Wilson voting no. 

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NEW YORK—Game console users are no longer just spending hours on end playing the latest version of “Call of Duty” or “Madden,” but are beginning to stream some of their favorite shows and movies through the platforms as well.

The newly unveiled Xbox One X console, which will be released later this year, as well as its predecessor Xbox One S, feature 4K video playback. This allows the consoles, along with Xbox’s main competitor PlayStation 4, to serve as streaming devices for high quality content. And console owners are recognizing this.

A chart from Statista based on Nielsen data reveals that for both the Xbox and PlayStation consoles, users are spending about half of their time every week doing something other than playing games. For the PlayStation, 20 percent are streaming TV shows or movies, with another 3 percent watching downloaded content. For Xbox, those numbers increase to 24 percent for streaming and 2 percent for downloaded content.

The Statista graphic shows that gaming consoles are more than just for gaming these days.

STAMFORD, CONN.—The Olympics are coming to Xbox and Samsung devices courtesy of the NBC Sports App. NBC Sports Groups announced that its live streaming product is now available for the Xbox streaming platform and select Samsung devices for authenticated pay-TV subscribers. The platforms join Amazon Fire, Apple TV, Chromecast, Comcast’s X1, Roku, Win10, Apple iOS and Android devices that will have access to NBC’s more than 4,500 hours of streaming for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

NBC Sports App’s coverage will include live streaming of all competition and TV simul-stream coverage of nine NBCUniversal Olympic television networks. The “NBC Olympics: Rio News & Results” app, along with digital only social media video franchise and news desk, will also be available to users. Streaming for the NBC Sports app is powered by Playmaker Media.

The 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro will kick off on Friday, Aug. 5, and run through Aug. 21.

Read more about how broadcasters are covering the Rio Games at our Live@TheRioOlympics social media hub.

NEW YORK—TV metric provider Nielsen announced that, effective April 25, 2016, it will make brand-level data for streaming video devices and game consoles available. The sampling will include connected peripherals such as Xbox, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, PlayStation, Nintendo and Wii boxes. In addition, Nielsen will add information from enabled smart TVs.

Clients will be able to track how many homes across the country own TV-connected devices, which brands that they own, and the growth of these brands over time. Clients will also be able to study how much time people spend with these devices overall and, for Nielsen measured content, link viewing to programs to these specific devices.

This new data is from Nielsen’s national television panel. The 40,000 households that comprise the National panel contain over 100,000 TV sets and over 50,000 TV connected devices measured by Nielsen, the firm said.

In addition to brand-level data, Nielsen is creating a new viewing source bucket called Total Use of Television that adds TV-connected device usage to traditional television usage for a complete view of the use of the TV set.

“The granularity of the brand-level data for TV-connected devices provides clients with in-depth insights into which devices consumers are using to access video content through their TV screens,” said Sara Erichson, executive vice president of Client Solutions and Audience Insights for Nielsen. “The ability to know how many consumers use which brands of TV connected devices, for how often and for how long, is critical for clients who need to make informed content decisions and understand their total audience.”