The Xbox Activision Deal Will Receive An Antitrust Review In The US

So, it's already been a few weeks since Xbox announced its intentions to buy Activision Blizzard. Concerns over a 'monopoly' were brought up pretty much straight away, with many looking at how much Microsoft is growing its Xbox division.

Well, according to Bloomberg, a review of the deal will go ahead in the US, conducted by the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC will look at whether it sees the deal as harming competition, according to the report.

The FTC will oversee the investigation into whether the takeover will harm competition, instead of the Justice Department, said the person, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the review. The two agencies share responsibility for antitrust reviews of mergers and often reach agreements about which one will investigate a deal.

We must stress that this is a fairly standard procedure and is typically carried out in the U.S when large company acquisitions go ahead. Still, this is one of the biggest deals ever in gaming, so it's likely to be heavily scrutinised.

Even if the two companies merge, both Sony and Tencent are still larger gaming companies than Microsoft by revenue, so, it'd seem a little dubious for Xbox to be punished in that way.

Two weeks on, how do you feel about this deal's chance of success? Let us know below.

[source bloomberg.com, via videogameschronicle.com]