If they extend the outside date, as soon as all the focus is on the appeal with the CAT and the administrative court with the FTC (July - August 2023), I don’t think that acquiring independent studios would be problematic.
I mean, I don’t see MS acquiring a new publisher while the ABK case is active. But once the review process is done and there is only litigation left, doing small acquisitions shouldn’t be an issue.
Just check what Sony did: they acquired Firewalk as soon as the review processes on the major regulators were done (April 21st).
After all, even the CMA said that acquiring independent studios was just a way to obtain talent to build exclusive content, nothing controversial.
