The UK CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) has publicly released a surprising new document in relation to Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard King. Another game company that has been made anonymous, is actually advocating for the purchase to go through.
As the CMA has guaranteed their anonymity, we have no idea what the company is or how they could be related to the industry. They did share this statement after the regulatory body made a public request for comment.
It is clear from the document that they also have a stake in the outcome of this regulation. At the same time, they aren’t opposed to the acquisition, and are in fact urging the CMA to reconsider the arguments being provided by Sony to stop the acquisition from going through.
This is the pernicious argument vs Sony’s, in the game company’s statements:
“While concerns have been raised by Sony in particular, ultimately the CMA’s priority is in protecting consumers and not to preserve the status quo of competitors.
This industry is far from static and one that frequently has new entrants that have the ability to quickly capture market share, such as had happened with Fortnite.
It is understandable that Sony is seeking to maintain its position, given it has invested a lot of capital, time and energy towards creating this.
However, the landscape is changing given the wide adoption of subscription-based services and cloud-based platforms in other industries. These have reduced the barriers to entry and such
innovation has allowed consumers to have new methods to pay for content, along with having access to a wider range of content without sacrificing quality.”
Much of the other arguments raised in the document matches what Microsoft has also said themselves. For example, the idea that Microsoft can enter the bigger mobile gaming market as a third entity to compete vs Apple and Alphabet, would break the duopoly the two platform holders have over that segment, which makes significantly more money than console video games.
While it seems curious for another game company to be speaking out on behalf of Microsoft, they aren’t the only entity to do so. The American union organization the Communications Workers of America are actually speaking out on behalf of Microsoft to finish this acquisition. They argue that this will enable Activision Blizzard King to better negotiate for worker rights and benefits, and even get union acknowledgement. This is definitely connected to the organizations’ ongoing woes with current Activision Blizzard King management.
While Microsoft and Sony will continue to push the PR on this cold war through the next year, it is certainly interesting to see more and more third parties speak for Microsoft’s side.
Source: CMA via Pledge Times
