The UK market watchdog has published its inv🔯estigation into the proposed merger between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, and its findings make for heady reading. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) believes Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard could 🧸result in "higher prices, fewer choices, or less innovation for UK gamers".
The in-depth report was conducted over five months and could be a major blow to Microsoft's plans. The most significant detail has been Call of Duty♈, one of Activision's most important games and one of the most profitable in the industry and especially in console gaming. The CMA has been considering the potential impact of Microsoft owning the Call of Duty maker, among other concerns such as the effect on the emerging sector of cloud gaming. And it's even suggested that in order for the deal to go ahead Microsoft should consider selling off Call of Duty.
The CMA beliᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚeves that a small number of "key games" which includes Call of Duty "plays an important role in driving competition between consoles". The market regulator believes PlayStation and Microsoft are the majo𝓰r rivals in the console segment, and that presumably Nintendo occupies its own distinct space, and that Microsoft could stand to gain from making Activision games exclusive to its services and platforms.
"The evidence available to the CMA, including data on how Microsoft measures the value of customers in the ordinary course of business, currently indicates that Micros🧸oft would find it commercially beneficial to make Activision’s games exclusive to its own consoles (or only available on PlayStation under materially wors▨e conditions)", the regulator said in a press release.
The regulator says that Microsoft has previous form when it comes to buying games studios and making their content exclusive and that if a ser♏ies such as CoD were to be follow in this vein market competition between Microsoft and Sony could resu🅰lt "in all gamers seeing higher prices, reduced range, lower quality, and worse service in gaming consoles over time". Microsoft has previously acquired the likes of ZeniMax Media, which it purchased for $7.5 billion in 2020, and with it came Bethesda which games have become exclusive to Microsoft. However, Microsoft has repeatedly said that it would keep Call of Duty on PlayStation, but this doesn't appear to have satisfied the CMA.
The proposed $68.7 billion merger has been looked at closely by a few market regulators around the world. Since both Microsoft and Activision are multinational corporations they require regulatory approval across the markets in 🦹which they operate. The United States' FTC and the E🥀uropean Union's watchdog have also expressed objections to the deal.
The CMA has made suggestions in order for it to approve the acquisition (via ). This would include a "partial divestiture of Activision Blizzard" and that could involve selling off the part of the company that handles Call of Duty, or selling off the Activision part of Activision Blizzard or selling off both the Activision and the Blizzard segments. Readers may wonder what would be left if Microsoft sold off Activision and Blizzard, but the corporation also includes King, which is a sizable part of the business. In fact, the Candy Crush maker 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:could be considered a cr🐟own jewel of the deal. Th𒀰e 💫CMA is open to other suggestions and has invited remedy proposals from interested parties and has set a February 22 deadline for this.
The full CMA press release can be found for those interested in reading it as it contains a lot more detail and apart from Call of ౠDuty there is much else that the CMA has considered, such as cloud gaming and th🌠e supply of consoles. The CMA's final report is due April 26.