The issue related to the multi-million dollar deal between Xbox and Activision-Blizzard gets even more complicated, as if things weren’t already complex enough.
The querelle, which also sees at the center Xbox Game Pass, the subscription service that you find on Amazon, primarily concerns the closure of the 69 billion dollar agreement.
After the FTC allegedly tried to hinder Europe in relation to the acquisition, now other news related to the British regulatory authorities are emerging.
If in the past few hours the controversial Bobby Kotick has also threatened the institution UK regulator, Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard could “harm gamers”, the UK regulator said.
As also reported by The Gamer, the UK market regulator has published its investigation into the proposed merger between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard.
The CMA believes Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard could result in lower prices high, less choice or less innovation for UK players.
The report has been conducted for five months and could be a major blow to Microsoft’s plans. The most significant detail primarily concerns Call of Duty, one of Activision’s most important games as well as one of the most profitable in the sector, especially on consoles.
The British regulator considered the potential impact of Microsoft’s acquisition of the COD maker, as well as other concerns such as the effect on the emerging cloud gaming sector .
The CMA believes that a small number of “key games,” including Call of Duty, “play an important role in promoting competition among console».
The market regulator believes that PlayStation and Microsoft are the main rivals in the console sector, and that Nintendo presumably occupies a space of its own. Xbox could therefore benefit from making Activision games exclusive to its services and platforms.
“The evidence available to the CMA, including data about how Microsoft measures customer value in the ordinary course of business, currently indicates that Microsoft would find it commercially advantageous to make customers Activision games exclusive to its consoles (or available only on PlayStation at materially worse terms)”, the regulator said in a press release.
Staying on the subject, Microsoft’s Frank X. Shaw recently claimed Sony allegedly lied recently to European Union (EU) regulators about the acquisition.
It is also true that the representatives of the European Games Developer Federation had said they were more than in favor of the agreement, which would not yet find a fair epilogue.
