"We warned you about this!" - US Federal Trade Commission criticised Microsoft for raising Game Pass prices
The main opponent of the merger between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard was the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). During the court hearings, its representatives repeatedly warned that the merger of the two giants would inevitably lead to a monopoly in the video game market and an increase in the cost of Game Pass.
Microsoft assured that it would not raise prices for Game Pass subscriptions and this was one of the main arguments that won the deal.
This week, Microsoft announced global changes to Game Pass plans, which have now not only increased in price by an average of 25 per cent, but also provide a different set of services for users of each version of Game Pass that are not easy to understand.
The FTC immediately after the deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard was finalised said it would do everything it could to cancel it, and of course the organisation did not ignore the Game Pass price hike.
Here's What We Know
The Federal Trade Commission published a statement criticising Microsoft's actions and recalling that the FTC warned of an imminent increase in the cost of subscriptions when Activision Blizzard games were added to the service.
The deterioration of the product - the removal of the most valuable games from Microsoft's new service - combined with price increases for existing subscribers is exactly the harm to consumers from the merger that the FTC warned about.
In addition, the commission recalled that because of the huge value of the deal (about $70 billion), Microsoft had to significantly reduce investments in other areas of its business and conduct a massive wave of layoffs that left thousands of people out of work.
Notably, the price increase for Game Pass coincided with the start of the phased addition of Call of Duty and other Activision Blizzard games to the service. This indicates that this was Microsoft's plan, yet the corporation promised that it would not do so.
Source: The Verge
