Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is the third key market to be concerned about Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The US Federal Trade Commission and the European Commission have already raised concerns.
For now, it is only a report with a preliminary finding, the investigation is still ongoing. But now CMA publicly statesthat Activision Blizzard’s merger with Microsoft could hurt UK gamers and potentially lead to higher prices, less choice or less innovation.
CMA notes that for the success of cloud services, it will be important to offer popular games to attract users in a growing and developing market.
“Evidence now before the CMA suggests that it would be commercially advantageous for Microsoft to have Activision’s games available exclusively on its cloud gaming service (or on other services on significantly worse terms),” the report said.
According to that Microsoft controls 60-70% of the world’s cloud services and has other important assets in cloud gaming thanks to the Xbox console, the leading operating system for personal computers (Windows) and the global cloud infrastructure (Azure and Xbox Cloud Gaming).
The purchase of one of the world’s most important game publishers would strengthen this strong position and significantly reduced competition, which Microsoft would face in the UK cloud gaming market. “This could affect the future of gaming and harm gamers in the UK, particularly those who cannot or do not want to buy an expensive games console or gaming PC,” the CMA warned.
As part of the preliminary findings, the CMA also mentions Microsoft’s strategy in the case of previous studies and brands that the company bought. These are now exclusive to the Microsoft ecosystem.
Server VGC states that the CMA is to propose as a potential solution partial sale to Activision Blizzard. This would mean complex changes in the structure of Activision Blizzard. Examples are as follows:
- Sale of the part responsible for Call of Duty (i.e. Infinity Ward, Treyarch, Sledgehammer Games)
- Sale to Activision
- Selling parts of Activision and Blizzard (maybe King studios?)
Another solution is total ban on fusion. But there is not a single mention of this in the CMA’s public official report. Only Microsoft was to receive these proposals from the CMA.
Microsoft has until February 22, 2023 to comment on the proposals. The CMA wants to close the case on 4/26/2023.
CALL OF DUTY U KONKURENCE 10 LET
Microsoft has previously committed to equal access with Call of Duty for Sony, Nintendo and Steam. The American firm has promised to release Call of Duty on PlayStation consoles for at least 10 years. Related to this deadline are the same content, price, quality, playability… It also recalls that 75% of respondents agreed that the acquisition would benefit the UK.
Even before the official CMA report, he applied for attention Bobby Kotick. Activision’s controversial CEO accused Blizzard in an interview with CNBC officials that they know nothing about the video game market. According to him, the United Kingdom should not miss Activision Blizzard’s merger with Microsoft. At the same time, he alludes to the situation after Brexit.
“It’s probably the first country where you see a recession and its real, serious consequences,” Kotick said, noting that it’s not Sony and Microsoft platforms, but the future of technology.
“British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said that they would like to become the Silicon Valley of Europe, and if such deals do not go through this process, then it will not be Silicon Valley, but Death Valley,” added Kotick.
