Earlier this week, the US Federal Trade Commission sent a filing to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in its ongoing court battle with Microsoft to contest its acquisition of Activision Blizzard in 2023.
The FTC complained that Microsoft"s recently announced Xbox Game Pass price increases, and its upcoming Standard plan, is an example of "product degradation" because the Standard plan will not include Day One game releases.
Late on Friday, Microsoft filed its own counter-complaint against the FTC"s letter to the US Appeals Court. The Verge"s Tom Warren posted the letter on his X account.
Microsoft has responded to the FTC"s filing about Xbox Game Pass price increases. It calls the FTC"s letter a "misleading, extra-record account of the facts" and says the FTC is wrong to call Game Pass Standard a “degraded” version because it includes multiplayer https://t.co/ocS9yfwSix pic.twitter.com/QXUoViUpoL
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) July 19, 2024
The company stated the FTC"s filing was "misleading" because it feels the upcoming Standard plan will include Xbox online multiplayer for $14.99 a month. That is something that the Xbox Game Pass Console plan, which is no longer being offered for new subscribers, does not have and would cost an extra $9.99 a month, making it a total cost of $20.98 a month for those subscribers.
Microsoft stated in its filing that Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which now has a price of $19.99 a month, will still offer more value compared to the old Game Pass Console plan with its additional online multiplayer cost.
The filing also says that in previous court battles, the FTC focused on its claim Microsoft would keep Activision"s Call of Duty franchise from people who bought Sony"s PlayStation consoles once the acquisition was completed. Instead, Microsoft and Sony now have a 10-year agreement to keep new Call of Duty games on the PlayStation platform. The filing added that "there remains no evidence anywhere of harm to competition." We are still waiting for the US Court of Appeals to make a final decision in this case.