The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) still has an opportunity to appeal the recent ruling which would allow the acquisition of Activision-Blizzard by Microsoft to go forward.

In the wake of Judge Corley’s decision to permit the deal between Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard, a spokesperson from the FTC spoke up about what may happen next:

“We are disappointed in this outcome given the clear threat this merger poses to open competition in cloud gaming, subscription services, and consoles. In the coming days we’ll be announcing our next step to continue our fight to preserve competition and protect consumers.”

Any decision would be had to made soon on the FTC’s part. While the organization seems confident in their continuing conflict with Microsoft, legal commentator Florian Mueller didn’t mince words.

“The @FTCobviously has the right to appeal, but I hope that after they’ve studied the district court’s ruling, they’ll find that there are too many hurdles they can’t overcome. There are better priorities for their fight for competition and innovation than this ‘lost cause’.”

If the FTC is going to act, they need to act fast as Microsoft’s bid for Activision-Blizzard expires on July 18 and unless they’re given some kind of extension it might already be too late for any FTC appeal.