UK regulator: Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision will hurt gamers

Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision has been a scorching subject for the final yr or so, however regulatory hurdles are nonetheless stopping the 2 firms from finalizing the deal value $68.7 billion, which is the most important takeover in tech historical past. The newest regulatory physique to precise its considerations is the British Competition and Markets Authority.

Analysts consider that Microsoft’s acquisition will hurt gamers in the long term as a result of titles reminiscent of Call of Duty might grow to be unique to Microsoft’s Xbox console. This would result in increased costs, diminished vary, market dominance, decrease high quality and worse service in gaming consoles.

Our job is to be sure that UK gamers will not be caught within the crossfire of world offers that, over time, may injury competitors and lead to increased costs, fewer selections, or much less innovation. We have provisionally discovered that this can be the case right here.

The European antitrust fee appears to be on the identical web page with the UK one and believes that some treatments have to be utilized earlier than continuing with the deal.

The UK’s CMA suggests decoupling the Call of Duty franchise and permitting it to be an unbiased firm. However, that will result in restricted sources and belongings and cripple the agency.

Microsoft guarantees that it will not make video games from Activision unique to its personal platforms and even provided Sony a 10-year license to make sure that Call of Duty stays on PlayStation for the foreseeable future.

CMA is not too eager on that concept, although, as Microsoft has a historical past of unique titles with Windows and Xbox and its observe report when it acquired ZeniMax studio in 2020 can also be talking aginst it. And even when Microsoft retains Call of Duty on PlayStation, CMA is frightened that it might be below “materially worse conditions”.

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