As spotted by The Verge, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has officially dropped its case against Microsoft over its Activision Blizzard King acquisition. The organization filed a motion to dismiss the case today, May 22, 2025, finally closing the door on the FTC’s attempts to block the largest acquisition in video game industry history.

Microsoft first announced its acquisition of Activision Blizzard King at the beginning of 2022, and by the end of 2022, the FTC had filed a lawsuit against Microsoft, and so began the long contest that has continued to stretch on, even after the FTC lost in its one major change to really stop the deal from happening. At the beginning of this month, it lost a final attempt at stopping the deal and has chosen to put its fight to rest.

“On May 7, 2025, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the decision of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, FTC v. Microsoft Corp…denying the Commission’s application for a preliminary injunction to block the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Inc. by Microsoft Corp,” the filing reads.

“The Commission has determined that the public interest is best served by dismissing the administrative litigation in this case. Accordingly, it is hereby ordered that the Complaint in this matter be, and it hereby is, dismissed by the Commission.”

Vice chair and president of Microsoft Brad Smith celebrated the dismissal, saying “Today’s decision is a victory for players across the country and for common sense in Washington, D.C. We are grateful to the FTC for today’s announcement.“

After losing its initial attempt to stop the deal, Microsoft closed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard King in October 2023, but that didn’t stop the FTC from trying to break it up after the fact. The organization also spoke out against decisions Microsoft has made since the deal closed, like raising the price of Game Pass and laying off thousands of employees.