Xbox angry with UK regulators siding with PlayStation over Activision buyout

metro.co.uk:

Public spats over the Microsoft Activision buyout continue, with Microsoft now taking umbrage with UK regulators’ ‘misplaced’ concerns.

While Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard has been given the thumbs up by Brazil and Saudi Arabia, it’s having some difficulty receiving approval from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

As a reminder, the acquisition can only go through if it is approved by regulators across the world, whose job is to ensure such a deal won’t give Microsoft any sort of unfair advantage within the industry.

The CMA is being far more scrutinous with the deal than most others, having started a second, more detailed, investigation into the matter. Microsoft, unsurprisingly, isn’t happy about that and has publicly dismissed the CMA’s concerns as ‘misplaced.’

In something of a win for Sony, the CMA believes that Activision Blizzard’s titles becoming Xbox exclusive would be detrimental for Microsoft’s competitors.

Microsoft has been somewhat cagey about whether it intends to make future Activision releases Xbox exclusive. So far, it’s only assured that it will uphold existing agreements for the Call Of Duty series, but Sony’s Jim Ryan has implied that Microsoft intends on making the franchise an Xbox exclusive by 2028.

Plus, the company has already demonstrated its willingness to keep new acquisitions to itself. All of Bethesda’s future releases, for example, are so far only for Xbox, with no mention of a PlayStation release.

An Xbox exclusive Call Of Duty has Sony worried that PlayStation fans will switch platforms. Microsoft has already claimed that PlayStation fans are more loyal than its own and with the CMA appearing to take Sony’s side, it’s now arguing that Call Of Duty becoming an