The UK competition regulator has raised concerns about Microsoft 's deal to acquire Activision Blizzard and has given the two companies five days to offer solutions.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has warned that the proposed acquisition of the company behind popular titles such as World of Warcraft and Candy Crush by the Xbox owner , which would be the biggest merger in the gaming industry, "could significantly reduce competition in games consoles, subscription games services and cloud gaming services."
The CMA added: "Microsoft already has a leading games console (Xbox), a leading cloud platform (Azure) and the leading PC operating system (Windows OS), which could be important for its success in cloud gaming.".
See also: Microsoft acquires Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion
The two companies now have five business days to submit proposals to address the concerns , and if no suitable proposals are submitted, the Activision and Microsoft deal will be referred for a phase 2 investigation, allowing an independent panel of experts to examine the risks in greater detail.
“We are concerned that Microsoft could use its control over popular games such as Call of Duty and World of Warcraft after merging with Activision to harm rivals, including recent and future rivals in multi-game subscription services and cloud gaming,” said Sorcha O’Carroll, senior director of mergers at the CMA.
In response, Phil Spencer, Microsoft's head of gaming, promised that the company would follow a "principled path" with Activision.
Spencer said: "As we've said before, we're committed to making the same version of Call of Duty available on PlayStation the same day the game launches elsewhere."
"We will continue to enable people to play with each other across platforms and devices. We know that players benefit from this approach because we did it with Minecraft, which continues to be available on many platforms and has expanded to even more since [Minecraft developer] Mojang joined Microsoft in 2014."
"As we expand our game showcase to new devices and platforms, we will make sure to do so in a way that protects developers' ability to choose how to distribute their games ."
See also: Sony to Microsoft: We expect Activision games to remain multiplatform
At the same time, however, Spencer also confirmed that Activision Blizzard Overwatch, Diablo , and Call of Duty will be on the Netflix-for-games service Game Pass.
Spencer said Microsoft's pitch to consumers is that the Activision acquisition is a result of the company's decision to "embrace choice" through the creation of Game Pass and bringing "more games to mobile platforms," again largely through Game Pass and its associated cloud streaming service.
Both Microsoft and Sony are frantically trying to fill out their subscription service catalogs.
The PlayStation owner launched a competitor to Game Pass, PlayStation Plus Premium , and spent $3.7 billion to acquire Destiny developer Bungie .
Microsoft has already acquired ZeniMax, which produces the Skyrim, Fallout and Doom, for $7.5 billion.
The bidding war poured cash into independent developers and publishers, but it also fueled fears of an inevitable collapse that would come once the boom times passed.
Source: theguardian.com
