UK regulator now says Call of Duty exclusivity would be "significantly loss-making" for Microsoft
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The Competition and Markets Authority, the UK regulator investigating Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, has changed its stance on the impact the deal would have on competition in the console space – as well as the likelihood of Xbox making Call of Duty exclusive to its system.
The organisation has updated its provisional findings, originally released in February, based on "a significant amount of new evidence" that emerged in a consultation period with interested parties.
According to a statement, the CMA inquiry group has "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 most significant change is the view on whether Microsoft has financial incentive to make Activision's games, including Call of Duty, exclusive to the Xbox ecosystem.
"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 statement reads.
"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 to make the game available on PlayStation."
However, the CMA emphasised that its concerns about the potential lessening of competition in the cloud gaming space still stand, something the regulator will continue to consider as it prepares
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