Despite the fact that the announcement of the agreement to purchase Activision Blizzard occurred more than a year ago, the acquisition has not been made effective. Microsoft It continues to battle in the offices to demonstrate before the English CMA and the European Union that the firm will not put competition in the video game sector at risk.
One of the most reluctant to give the go-ahead has been the UK body, which has listened to both Sony’s and Xbox’s arguments about whether Call of Duty will be exclusive to Phil Spencer’s division or not. Now, through a provisional finding, the CMA has revealed that “the transaction will not lead to a substantial lessening of competition in relation to console games in the UK.”
This statement comes after having “carefully considered” multiple evidence contributed by all parties. The institution has contributed its vision in this regard, having assessed the different positions:
“The most significant new evidence brought to the CMA concerns Microsoft’s financial incentives to make Activision games, including Call of Duty (CoD), exclusive to its own consoles. While the CMA’s original analysis indicated that this strategy would be profitable in most scenarios, the new data (providing a better understanding of the actual buying behavior of CoD players) indicates that this strategy would be significantly loss-making in any plausible scenario.On this basis, the updated analysis It now shows that it would not be commercially beneficial to Microsoft if CoD were exclusive to Xbox after the deal, but that Microsoft would still have the incentive to continue offering the game on PlayStation.”
And what about cloud gaming?
That is the other big question on which the CMA has not yet ruled. In the provisional text they clarify that they refer “only to competition in the supply of consoles and not to competition in the supply of cloud gaming services”. In fact, the agency indicates that they are considering all the information provided by the parties to a subject on which they have not yet changed their mind.
Of course, it must be reiterated that we are talking about an eventual conclusion and that both the companies and any interested third party will have “the opportunity to respond with new evidence before we make a final decision.” We will see what the CMA definitively thinks with its final report on April 26, 2023.
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