New report from MLex:

- The gamer's lawsuit will get a dual US court hearing on May 12th.

- US District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley said she's taking the case "in pieces", and the dual hearings will be focused on an essential question the plaintiffs need to address: whether the deal would cause immediate irreparable harm to consumers.

- At today's hearing the judge said she's seen the new complaint: "So I see that, it is there, the market's a little bit different, narrower — that's good".

- For the plaintiffs, lawyer David Seidel said the more important item is the scheduling of the hearing on their bid for a preliminary injunction blocking the deal from going ahead.

- Microsoft's lawyers told Judge Corley the issue of whether the plaintiffs will suffer irreparable harm if the deal closes is "a huge issue that they have not addressed in this complaint."

- "The only thing they are saying is that at some point in time there will be a new Call of Duty and that it will be exclusive" to Microsoft devices and platforms, Microsoft's lawyer told the judge. This means the bid for a preliminary injunction would fall short of the statutory requirement that plaintiffs show they will suffer immediate damage, she argued.

- Judge Corley said she wants to focus the next steps in the case on the question of irreparable harm, as well as the issue of the bond to be posted by the plaintiffs. The preliminary injunction hearing will be focused on these two narrow issues.

- Regarding depositions and discovery, Microsoft's lawyers told the judge the plaintiffs already have some 11 million documents, including investigational hearing transcripts and FTC deposition transcripts.