A US judge has temporarily blocked the takeover of game publisher Activision Blizzard by tech giant and Xbox producer Microsoft. According to the district judge, this is necessary to prevent an unfair competitive advantage for Microsoft.

On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the US regulator, filed an urgent motion to stop the billion-dollar deal. The court will consider a longer break in the takeover deal next week.

A month ago, the European Commission gave the green light to the acquisition.

Activision Blizzard is the publisher of well-known titles such as World of WarcraftAnd Overwatch, Call of Duty And candy crush. The potential acquisition was announced in early 2022. The value of the deal is approximately 60 billion euros. It will be the largest acquisition ever in the gaming industry.

Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) also rejected the $1 billion deal. In April, the Capital Markets Authority said it was concerned about the future Cloud gaming If the acquisition continues. bee Cloud gaming Stream a game (such as music or a movie) to a device. According to the regulator, consumers will no longer have to purchase a gaming computer or PC.

Rival Sony, owner of the Playstation, has been fighting the takeover for months. The Japanese company fears that if Microsoft takes control of Activision Blizzard, popular games will only be published for Xbox and not for Playstation. Microsoft has already promised many times that this will not happen.

Nintendo struck a deal with Microsoft in December. reported that Call of dutyThe games will also be released for Nintendo game consoles in the next ten years.