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It’s taken a long time, but Microsoft’s nearly two-year effort to buy gaming giant Activision is finally coming to fruition, with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) accepting a restructuring offer that would give Microsoft control over the cloud gaming market. Addresses the CMA’s concerns about the dominance of ,
Microsoft had announced its plans to buy Activision in January 2022 in a massive deal worth $68.7 billion. The move would essentially make Microsoft the third-largest gaming company globally by revenue (behind Tencent and Sony), giving it control over the mega-franchise. As in World of Warcraft and Call of Duty.
The European Commission (EC) eventually approved the deal with some conditions, and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US was unable to stop the deal despite its best efforts, leaving the UK alone in the regulatory realm as it firmly Stuck. Use your guns to prevent the takeover from being completed. In April, the CMA concluded that the deal would “significantly weaken competition” and create “…the most powerful operator” in the cloud gaming market.
The CMA has argued that Microsoft’s current market advantage in cloud gaming is due to the proliferation of Windows and its “critical cloud infrastructure” business, a position that would enable it to build up a market share that already stands at between 60–70%. Sits.
It’s worth noting that Microsoft made various deals to keep Activision games on rival platforms, including Nintendo, Sony, and Steam, for a period of 10 years. But the CMA stressed that Microsoft’s proposals could not replace the existing “competitive dynamics”.
In August, Microsoft offered some concessions to finalize the deal, and offered to sell cloud streaming rights for all current and future Activision games to French video game publisher Ubisoft for the next 15 years. Last month, the UK gave the strongest signal yet that it has made substantial progress towards resolving its concerns, noting that it “substantially addresses previous concerns and approves the deal.” “Opens the door to meeting.”
And now, CMA has gone all the way, even going as far as semi-promoting the acquisition, calling Microsoft’s concession “a gamechanger that will boost competition.”
This is a breaking story, refresh for updates.
