Ouch, UK Regulator Blocks Microsoft's Bid to Buy Activision Blizzard
A UK regulator has blocked Microsoft’s bid to buy Activision Blizzard, dealing a huge blow to the proposed acquisition.
A month ago, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) determined that the acquisition probably wouldn't harm the console market. But on Wednesday, the regulator came to the opposite conclusion in the emerging cloud gaming space.
“The evidence available to the CMA showed that Microsoft would find it commercially beneficial to make Activision’s games exclusive to its own cloud gaming service,” the UK regulator said in the final decision(Opens in a new window). Hence, Microsoft could corner the cloud-gaming market, incentivizing it to raise prices for Xbox Game Pass, which currently costs $9.99 or $14.99 in the US.
The CMA also claims Microsoft “already accounts for an estimated 60-70% of global cloud gaming services.” This includes Xbox Game Pass, which works for both the Xbox console and Windows PCs, along with Microsoft’s Azure cloud business.
“The deal would reinforce Microsoft’s advantage in the market by giving it control over important gaming content such as Call of Duty, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft,” the CMA added. “The evidence available to the CMA indicates that, absent the merger, Activision would start providing games via (multiple) cloud platforms in the foreseeable future.
The finding goes against Microsoft’s remedy to the antitrust concerns. In February, the company signed a 10-year deal to bring all Microsoft games to Nvidia’s rival cloud-based GeForce Now service. However, the CMA found Microsoft’s remedy contained restrictions, noting “it was not sufficiently open to providers who might wish to offer versions of games on PC operating systems other than Windows.”
“Accepti
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