Gaming News Call of Duty on a single console would be like losing money!
Several documents surface as part of the CMA’s ruling against Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. Including a potentially disqualified Call of Duty on Xbox.
The ax finally fell last week… The UK’s competition police officer ‘CMA’ has spoken out against Microsoft’s takeover of Activision Blizzard. In other words, the fruits of possible acquisition on British territory are blocked to this day! The organization believes that the country’s consumers would ultimately be threatened – particularly in the cloud gaming space, where the American giant already has a strong presence: “Microsoft would see a commercial advantage in making Activision’s games exclusive to its own service ( in the clouds, Red Note)”. Immediately after the verdict was announced this Wednesday, April 26, the Redmond-based company and Activision announced that they would appeal.
A “significant” loss
As we explained to you a few days ago: for the CMA, it is “no longer Call of Duty acting as a scarecrow”… Indeed, as reported IGNThe organization even believes that if the acquisition of Activision-Blizzard succeeds, PlayStation’s fears for the famous FPS are unfounded. That explains the supervisory authority Microsoft would lose “significant money” if the shooter becomes an Xbox exclusive ! Indeed, this is one of the big concerns of Sony and the CEO of its video games division, Jim Ryan. The man wants a guarantee that Call of Duty will be “forever” on PS4 and PS5. For its part, Microsoft is offering a ten-year contract, which PlayStation has not accepted.
To support their analysis, the CMA relies on the “Critical Diversion Rate” (or “Critical Diversion Ratio”), which is the number of Sony players who should switch to Xbox for such an exclusivity to be profitable for Microsoft for the money that these players would spend on in-game purchases within five years of this decision. According to the British police officer, this would represent a loss of “several billions” in those few years. As IGN notes, the organization takes into account a multitude of factors: such as the possible backtracking of the American giant regarding this decision, the benefits associated with Game Pass … In any case, in the short or long term, it would be a waste of time. . It remains to be seen what Xbox will do if its acquisition is confirmed! After the FTC and the CMA, the decision of Europe expected on May 22nd is missing.
