We’ve been following the CMA and Xbox affair for some time, the Brits finally knocked down the American takeover of Activision, with a decision that, with the exception of Google and Sony, is criticize the entire tech industry. And it is that the reasons expressed by the British organization are questionable to say the least.
The main argument from the CMA revolved around cloud gaming, since they had no reason to use Call of Duty as a “useful idiot” to do the blocking, they came out with a weird argument from their sleeve for it.
CMA ruling could worsen cloud gaming market
And of course, having used this emerging market (which is only in its infancy by the way) the main players in cloud gaming have come out against the decision since the majors involved not only saw no risk for their business, but quite the opposite. . From Nvidia to Boosteroid, they’ve expressed their unease at taking Activision out of this equation.
Perhaps the most impactful words we have read from the mouth of Antonina Batova, current Director of Communications at Boosteroid in a recent media interview Wccftech. He assures that due to this decision, Activision games may not reach the cloud gaming market in the short term.
We have no evidence that Activision will start delivering games to cloud platforms in the near future. On the contrary, the cloud gaming community knows that Activision has a pretty strong stance on cloud gaming, which only confirms that it will most likely not be available on cloud gaming services in the future. In theory, of course, it’s possible his strategy may have changed, but we don’t have any information on that and wouldn’t speculate.
Additionally, the CMA’s decision is likely to do the opposite of what it purports to do: slow cloud gaming innovation and development by removing Activision’s audience from cloud gaming services. The situation where this content is widely available in the cloud has obvious advantages for the market, the competition and, above all, for the end customers who could then play high-end Activision games on almost any device, regardless of either your processing power or operating system.
Batova offered a surprising solution that no one at the CMA took into account, well not really surprised by the randomness of his decision. For the directive, the body could still have offered to cap the deal while they oversee it themselves. Indeed, they are questioned about a summons specific to their company by the British authority, in particular in the pages 282 and 283where the CMA assured that the future of Boosteroid and other companies would be uncertain in the event of a purchase.
There is no room for long comments based on this. We also don’t know what exactly the CMA is referring to in these 2 paragraphs, but we believe that any potential uncertainty “regarding future development” can be avoided if the CMA agrees to monitor Microsoft’s commitments over time either directly or through through the designated authority. .
This will certainly be in the interest of cloud gaming providers. The marketplace and, of course, end users greatly benefit from the great Xbox Game Studios franchises and Activision games widely available in the cloud.
That’s why major cloud gaming providers, including Boosteroid, want the deal done.
As I said at the beginning of the text, there are today only two companies which type in the ear, Sony and Google.
