The much-talked-about acquisition of Activision, a case that has kept news sites busy for a long time due to the opposition made by the FTC, CMA (the antitrust bodies of the US and UK respectively) and Sony, has now been over for some time bringing great benefits to Xbox Game Pass players, yet the FTC still hoped to be able to cancel it. This at least until today.

The long legal saga has in fact officially come to an end, with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) deciding to withdraw its charges against the agreement. This move marks the conclusion of a process that in fact had already been concluded for some time.

The request for dismissal by the US regulator was filed a few weeks after the rejection of its previous request for an injunction aimed at canceling the acquisition that had already taken place. The official document states that "The Commission has determined that the public interest is best served by dismissing the administrative litigation in this case". As a result, the complaint was formally dismissed.

The reaction from Redmond was not long in coming: Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, commented positively on the news through social media. He called today's decision "a victory for gamers across the country and for common sense in Washington, D.C.," taking the opportunity to express gratitude to the FTC for the announcement.

With the dismissal of the case by the FTC, attempts to hinder Microsoft's massive acquisition of Activision Blizzard, a transaction worth $68.7 billion, are finally concluded. The deal had been formally closed in October 2023, a few months after Microsoft had won a first legal victory against the FTC itself. The government agency had subsequently appealed against that ruling, an appeal that now effectively lapses.