March 24 (Portaltic/EP) –
The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) does not consider that the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft may substantially affect competition in relation to console games in the country, as stated in new preliminary conclusions.
The CMA awaits publish the final results on April 26 of the investigation he is carrying out on the purchase of Activision Blizzard by the US company and its impact on the UK video game market.
In its provisional conclusions in February, it raised the possibility that the closing of the purchase could give rise to competition issues with console gaming and cloud gaming services. However, it has qualified these conclusions this Friday after compiling and analyzing the responses to these first provisional conclusions, from the interested parties.
In a statement, the CMA acknowledges that “in general, the transaction will not result in a material reduction of competition in relation to video game consoles in the United Kingdom”, which could contribute to tipping the final decision in favor of closing the acquisition. That is to say, it does not believe that it can affect the sales of the consoles in a significant way.
One of the main points being investigated is the possibility of Xbox making Activison Blizzard games exclusive to its console that are so far available on various platforms. The most controversial case is that of the Call of Duty (CoD) franchise, that has confronted the American company with another giant in the sector, PlayStation (Sony).
At first, this body understood that this exclusivity situation would be “profitable in most scenarios”, but with the new data provided, it now considers that it would be a strategy that would not favor Xbox financially, and that it would even “it would generate significant losses in any plausible scenario.”
“The updated analysis now shows that it would not be commercially beneficial for Microsoft to make CoD exclusive to Xbox after the deal, but rather that Microsoft will still have the incentive to continue.” making the game available on PlayStation”, points out in a press release.
On the other hand, it qualifies that these new provisional conclusions only affect competition in the video console market and not that of cloud gaming services, since it is still “carefully considering” the responses received.
Microsoft takes several weeks closing deals with other platforms to facilitate access to Xbox and Activision Blizzard PC games for a period of ten years after the closing of the purchase, which have already been signed by Nintendo, Ubitus, Boosteroid and Nvidia. Sony has rejected it and while Valve has chosen not to accept it and, instead, show their trust in the head of Xbox, Phil Spencer.
