According to a new report from Politico (opens in new tab), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is "likely" to take antitrust action to prevent Microsoft from executing its acquisition of Activision Blizzard (opens in new tab). This is according to a source familiar with the FTC's operations, who said that the FTC's investigative staff is "skeptical" of both companies' claims.

But likely does not mean guaranteed, and FTC commissioners have neither met with Microsoft and Activision attorneys nor voted on the formal complaint; the FTC declined to comment on Politico's report.

The FTC, under current commissioner Rina Khan, has already vowed to crack down hard on mergers and acquisitions by giant tech companies, as evidenced by its involvement in Nvidia's failed acquisition of ARM. began when the Microsoft and Activision acquisitions were announced earlier this year.

The possibility of a Microsoft acquisition of Activision is perhaps the hottest topic in gaming news this year, and depending on who you ask, it could either be a seismic shift in the way the business of video games is conducted or a relatively minor shift in power among the Big Three console manufacturers. But the FTC's lawsuit is not a surprise. But the FTC's complaint is huge, and finalizing the deal will likely be significantly delayed or not done at all while these claims are tested.

Microsoft's lawyers have argued extensively that no single game series can make or break a console, and Sony's lawyers recently told a UK competition authority that competing franchise Battlefield "cannot keep up" with Activision's Call of Duty ( open in new tab).

It was also recently revealed that Microsoft has offered Sony a 10-year contract (opens in new tab) guaranteeing that Call of Duty will be released on PlayStation consoles. That would give Sony itself at worst a much longer period of time to develop a suitable competitor to Call of Duty, but Sony has not been very public about it.

You can read the full text of the potential FTC complaint at Politico. (open in new tab) [13].