It has been an on going battle for Microsoft trying to officially acquire Activision Blizzard and today the UK CMA announced that they’ve denied the acquisition due to concerns that would damage competition in the Cloud Gaming market.
“Microsoft has a strong position in cloud gaming services and the evidence available to the CMA showed that Microsoft would find it commercially beneficial to make Activision’s games exclusive to its own cloud gaming service.
Microsoft already accounts for an estimated 60-70% of global cloud gaming services and has other important strengths in cloud gaming from owning Xbox, the leading PC operating system (Windows) and a global cloud computing infrastructure (Azure and Xbox Cloud Gaming).
The deal would reinforce Microsoft’s advantage in the market by giving it control over important gaming content such as Call of Duty, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft. The evidence available to the CMA indicates that, absent the merger, Activision would start providing games via cloud platforms in the foreseeable future.”
Microsoft’s Vice Chair and President, Brad Smith put out a statement saying they are still committed to their deal to acquire Activision, but are disappointed in the outcome of the decision from the UK CMA.
We remain fully committed to our acquisition with @ATVI_AB and will appeal today's determination by the CMA. Here's our statement. pic.twitter.com/ylvDP5RUqQ
— Brad Smith (@BradSmi) April 26, 2023
Over the last few months Microsoft made partnerships with multiple cloud based platforms stating they’d bring all Xbox games including Activision Blizzard titles to them once the deal went through. They also made a ten-year agreement with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty to the Switch and future Nintendo consoles.
It seems like the competition would be completely unfair when it comes to cloud gaming. Do you agree with this decision?
You can read more about the news here.
