The UK regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), appears to be willing to rule in favor of Microsoft with regard to purchase of Activision Blizzard ('Call of Duty', 'World of Warcraft', among others) considering that the acquisition will not have a significantly negative impact on rival Xbox consoles.
According to preliminary assessments by the CMA, the acquisition of series such as 'Call of Duty' by Microsoft “will not affect” the ability of PlayStation consoles to compete in the market. Indeed, the regulator considers that Sony has a strong enough catalog to withstand the impact of this acquisition.
The regulator also notes that Microsoft could suffer substantial losses if it decided to make the 'Call of Duty' series exclusive to the Xbox platform (both consoles and the Xbox Game Pass service), indicating that there would not be a significant number of players switching from PlayStation to Xbox.
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Although doubts regarding the console market may have been clarified, the CMA does not have the same confidence in relation to the 'cloud' services market, noting that Microsoft represents 70% of this segment. Taking this into account, says Engadget website that the regulator considers that the purchase of Activision Blizzard by the technological giant could harm gamers without money for a more expensive console or PC.
Remember that Microsoft intends to buy Activision Blizzard for 68,7 billion dollars – the equivalent of 64 billion euros.
