Microsoft may have won the legal fight to acquire Activision Blizzard, but nearly three years later, what the company described in July as the “most significant restructure in Xbox history” raises a more consequential question: Did Lina Khan's FTC lose the case while correctly identifying the risks of allowing the merger to proceed?

Sold as a win for workers, consumers, and the future of gaming, the merger came with reassuring promises. Before the deal closed, Activision told employees it did “not anticipate a lot of changes in jobs.”

The reality since 2023 has been far less reassuring.

• Before the merger ink was even dry, Microsoft cut around 1,900 gaming jobs in January 2024, the majority of which were Activision Blizzard employees.

• In May 2024, Microsoft moved to close Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, and Alpha Dog Games while consolidating Roundhouse Studios into ZeniMax Online Studios. Another 650 Xbox jobs were cut that September.

• In July 2025, Microsoft announced approximately 9,000 companywide layoffs, including cuts to Microsoft Gaming that affected union-represented employees and resulted in the cancellation of several games.

• In July 2026, Microsoft announced another 4,800 companywide job cuts. Xbox outlined plans to eliminate approximately 3,200 roles throughout FY27, including 1,600 immediately, while moving four acquired studios to new management.

• In September 2026, Microsoft announced another 268 Xbox layoffs as part of its ongoing restructuring, bringing the company approximately three-quarters of the way through its previously announced plan.

Microsoft also promised a future where people could play virtually anywhere and touted the acquisition's potential to substantially strengthen Game Pass. While the company initially expanded Game Pass with Activision content, it later raised subscription prices before reversing course in April 2026, lowering prices while removing day-one access to future Call of Duty releases.

That retreat raises questions about one of the most prominently advertised consumer benefits of the merger. Even Microsoft has acknowledged that its bets on Game Pass and multiplatform gaming failed to grow at the pace it expected.

The company also leaned heavily on its labor-neutrality agreement to build support among workers, unions, and policymakers. That agreement helped thousands of gaming workers organize, but it did not shield them from restructuring. Of the 1,600 Xbox jobs eliminated in July 2026, hundreds were represented by CWA.

The FTC's case largely came down to a niche argument over whether Microsoft would remove Call of Duty from PlayStation. But the agency's actual warning was broader. It argued that acquiring Activision would give Microsoft greater power and incentive to withhold or degrade content, including changing the terms and timing of access, potentially reducing competition on price, product quality, and innovation.

The FTC was not predicting every subsequent layoff or business decision. But the gap between Microsoft's merger-era commitments and its post-merger record raises precisely the concerns that antitrust enforcers should examine when dominant corporations ask regulators to trust their promises.

Those concerns were hardly welcomed during the merger fight. Activision's Chief Communications Officer told employees that the “FTC doesn't seem to really understand our industry.”

In October 2025, former FTC Chair Lina Khan offered a remarkably polite “I told you so,” writing that Microsoft's acquisition had been followed by substantial layoffs and price increases that harmed gamers and developers. The restructuring and changes to Game Pass since then have only added to the questions surrounding Microsoft's original promises.

This is exactly why antitrust enforcers should be skeptical of voluntary commitments from Big Tech. Promises made before a merger closes are not the same as enforceable protections afterward. Once a deal closes, workers, consumers, and competitors are left to navigate the consequences, while regulators have far less leverage to demand a different outcome.

Microsoft got its merger. The question now is whether the workers, gamers, and competitors who were promised a brighter future got anything close to what they were sold.

We think not.