The Competition and Markets Authority, a British regulator, has published preliminary findings about Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision. The supervisor is critical. Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision, is not pleased with the British conclusions.
The CMA says in preliminary conclusions that the acquisition sought by Microsoft could lead to higher prices, less choice or less innovation for UK gamers. According to the regulator, the acquisition means that Microsoft becomes even stronger in cloud gaming, harming competition in this growing sector. According to the CMA, that could hurt British players if they can’t “afford expensive consoles”. The deal would also have a negative impact on players by damaging the “important rivalry between Xbox and PlayStation”.
These preliminary findings are the culmination of a wide-ranging investigation conducted by the CMA over the past five months. conducted to understand the impact of the acquisition on the market. It included interviews with leaders from Microsoft and Activision and analyzed three million internal documents from the two companies. In addition, the regulator has conducted an independent survey of UK gamers and gathered evidence from other console makers, publishers and cloud gaming companies. role in the competition between consoles. “The evidence available to the CMA, including data on how Microsoft measures customer value in the normal course of business, currently indicates that Microsoft would find it commercially advantageous to make Activision’s games exclusive to its own consoles or available only on PlayStation consoles under worse terms. The CMA’s preliminary findings note that Microsoft has used this strategy of buying game studios and making their content exclusive to its platforms following several previous game studio acquisitions.”
The British regulator says nothing further about the fact that Microsoft has plans to release Call of Duty to bring to Nintendo consoles if the acquisition materializesis. Also, nothing is said about Microsoft’s earlier confirmation that it has offered a has made an offer to Sony to make Call of Duty available for PlayStation consoles for 10 years. In addition, the titles would be released simultaneously on Xbox and PlayStation consoles. Keeping content exclusive is not unusual in the console game market; competitors such as Sony and Nintendo also use it.
Bobby Kotick has an interview with the American CNBC on Tuesday spewed his bile about, among other things, this critical British attitude. He referred, among other things, to statements by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, according to whom the United Kingdom can become the ‘Silicon Valley of Europe’. Kotick warned that “if deals like this can’t go through, it won’t be Silicon Valley, it’ll be Death Valley.” He also spoke of the likelihood of a recession for the UK post-Brexit and that the country should embrace deals such as the Activision takeover as it would create opportunities and jobs. Speaking to the Financial Times, he again criticized the British government and also criticized the CMA. The regulator would not think independently and would be guided too much by the ideology of the FTC, the American counterpart of the CMA.
Microsoft wants to take over the game publisher for $ 68.7 billion in what is the largest takeover in the games sector would be to date. The Companies announced the deal last year. Including the American regulator FTC is critical, because Microsoft would get an unfair advantage and could limit competition in the market.
