CMA Believes Microsoft Is Too Dominant In Cloud Gaming Now Because Of Their Operating Systems

gameranx.com:

One of CMA’s key arguments against the Microsoft Activision deal is a real head scratcher, relating to Microsoft’s core business – their operating systems.

Basically, the CMA claims that Microsoft has an overly dominant position in the cloud because they have control over the dominant operating systems used for cloud gaming. In specific, the CMA refers to Microsoft, which is where most cloud gaming services work on, and Xbox OS.

So, let’s break these arguments down. On pages 227 to 228 of the CMA’s final decision, they make these statements:

 “We believe that Windows OS and Xbox OS both give Microsoft a wide range of games that readily work without any need for porting or use of a compatibility layer. Further, as both OSs are owned by Microsoft, they can be self-supplied at little or no incremental cost.”

“For providers other than Microsoft, there is a significant cost to using Windows as licensing fees must be paid to Microsoft. This is demonstrated by several third party responses and recognised by Microsoft. As described above, Microsoft acknowledges that this licensing fee is relevant if it results in rivals facing higher costs than Microsoft. Several competitors have submitted that the licensing fee is a significant cost, and consequently the licensing fee in many cases gives Microsoft a cost advantage.”

“Evidence suggests that porting a game to a different OS is expensive, and developers are generally unwilling to develop games for OSs without a large installed user base. Google Stadia, for example, attempted to run its cloud gaming service on Linux and its business failed. Many see the lack of content on Stadia’s Linux-based platform as a major contributor to its failure.

We believe that this shows that porting