A big step forward on the rocky road from Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision-Blizzard: Authorities in several countries (and the EU) are reviewing the US$69 billion mega deal over competition concerns. With the British Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), an important authority has now made a positive statement for the time being.
In a press release the CMA announced that it had updated the preliminary findings of the investigation. Most important clause in the text: overall, the transaction will not lead to a significant impediment to competition in console games in the UK
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Call of Duty still on PlayStation?
Another important passage concerns the core of the whole misery: the feared exclusivity of Call of Duty for the Xbox console cosmos. Competitor Sony fears that the competition would shift extremely in favor of Microsoft.
However, the CMA sees it differently, respectively can see no advantage for Microsoft in this:
The cost Microsoft would incur if it withdrew Call of Duty from the PlayStation would outweigh the benefits of such action.
We come to a different take on the gaming giant’s motivations in the GameStar podcast:
A big step
Although this is not the final result of the CMA’s report, it is possible that this passage will remain valid until the end. But first, with this intermediate result gave the parties the opportunity to present new evidence, as the chairman of the expert panel, Martin Coleman, said in the report.
Meanwhile, Call of Duty isn’t the only gold mine at Activision Blizzard:
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Diablo 4 – Beta verdict on the first open-world game in the series
The CMA’s final report is scheduled for April 26th. If the evidence is complete, at least one authority would formally pave the way for the mega deal.
However, it remains to be seen what conclusions other countries and institutions will come to. Probably the biggest hurdle: The US Federal Trade Commission, which wants to try to legally prevent the takeover.
