UK Paves The Way For Microsoft To Buy Activision Blizzard But Key Hurdles Remain
A key regulator has said it provisionally no longer believes Microsoft's proposed deal to buy Activision Blizzard would result in a lessening of competition in the console space, paving the way for the purchase to go through.
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority said on Friday that it has narrowed the scope of its concerns about the deal. Importantly, though, the deal is not complete, and the CMA still has concerns about Microsoft's bid to buy Activision Blizzard in the area of cloud gaming.
The CMA said in a news release that it received a «significant amount of new evidence,» and based upon this--along with the careful consideration of a «wide range» of other information--the group now believes, provisionally, that Microsoft's deal shouldn't be all that problematic in the UK.
«The CMA inquiry group has updated its provisional findings and reached the provisional conclusion that, overall, the transaction will not result in a substantial lessening of competition in relation to console gaming in the UK,» the group said.
According to the CMA, the «most significant» new evidence that it found pertained to the belief held by some that Microsoft could, or would, make Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox.
«While the CMA's original analysis indicated that this strategy would be profitable under most scenarios, new data (which provides better insight into the actual purchasing behaviour of CoD gamers) indicates that this strategy would be significantly loss-making under any plausible scenario,» the CMA said. «On this basis, the updated analysis now shows that it would not be commercially beneficial to Microsoft to make CoD exclusive to Xbox following the deal, but that Microsoft will instead still have the incentive to continue
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