The "Gamer's Lawsuit" is back after being dismissed by a judge. Now, they claim to have "uncontroverted evidence" that Microsoft wants to take out the competition with the proposed Activision Blizzard purchase.
In an appeal filing that was first reported by Axios, lawyers for the group of random players argue that the court "failed to consider uncontroverted evidence that Microsoft had the intention to put its main competition, the Sony PlayStation, out of the market; and that this merger is a part of that strategy" when it dismissed the previous lawsuit.
The evidence in question consists of an internal email sent by Xbox Studios chief Matt Booty to Xbox Chief Financial Officer Tim Stuart. In the public release of the appeal, the contents of the email referred to as Exhibit K, have been heavily redacted and is labeled as an internal exchange that should not be shown outside of court.
Microsoft has confirmed that the email was sent by Booty in 2019 and said that the company cannot legally share the email or its content. The message sent by Booty to his fellow Xbox executive of Microsoft's intention to beat PlayStation precedes the company's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard which was only announced in January 2022. The email exchange even predates Microsoft's $7.5 billion acquisition of ZeniMax Media and its subsidiary studios.