The UK competition regulator has said Microsoft’s $75bn acquisition of video game maker Activision Blizzard could “result in higher prices, fewer choices, or less innovation for UK gamers” in provisional findings that jeopardise the landmark deal.
The Competition and Markets Authority on Wednesday said the deal would weaken the “important rivalry between Xbox and PlayStation” in gaming consoles and stifle competition in the nascent market of cloud gaming.
The findings are a blow to Microsoft, which is also battling regulatory probes in Brussels and the US to push through its biggest-ever deal and become the third-biggest gaming company in terms of revenues, behind China’s Tencent and Japan’s Sony.
The CMA said evidence it had analysed indicated Microsoft would be commercially motivated to make the Activision game Call of Duty exclusive to its Xbox, hurting rival console makers like Sony. The blockbuster game has generated $30bn in lifetime sales for Activision.
Microsoft will now offer remedies to the regulator in a bid to assuage its concerns before the CMA makes its final decision in April.
Microsoft’s deputy general counsel Rima Alaily said the company was “committed to offering effective and easily enforceable solutions that address the CMA’s concerns. Our commitment to grant long term 100 per cent equal access to Call of Duty to Sony, Nintendo, Steam and others preserves the deal’s benefits to gamers and developers and increases competition in the market.”
Source: Financial Times
