The European Commission is now asking around the video game industry itself to acquire more information about Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard King.
The regulator sent a 91 page questionnaire earlier this month, with a deadline for the end of the year. Possible recipients for this survey probably run the gamut of all the different arms of the industry. That includes Microsoft’s and Activision Blizzard King’s competitors, and includes retailers, distributors, game studios, game publishers, OEMs for both PCs and mobile devices, and possibly even social media influencers.
The questionnaire basically lays out flat all the possible worst case scenarios Microsoft could do after they finalize this purchase, and gauges from respondents how likely these could happen.
So, for example, the EU asked point blank if Microsoft would block Activision Blizzard King’s games from being sold on other platforms. Other questions were if they would willingly degrade the quality of ports of their game to non-Microsoft platforms, raise their prices, enforce exclusivity and/or timed exclusivity.
Other questions raise interesting possibilities, and do seem to indicate the EU has also taken Microsoft’s case for approving the acquisition to heart.
For example, respondents were asked what would be the consequences for competition in cloud gaming if Activision Blizzard King’s games were suddenly available in cloud gaming servers.
Of course, the canard that everyone has seemingly focused on, thanks to Sony’s prodding, is their pet franchise from Activision themselves, Call of Duty. Video game retailers and distributors were probed to find out if Sony’s claims that it has an outsized influence in the industry, so much so that Microsoft acquiring it would hurt competition. They were also asked about potential competitors to Call of Duty.
We already know there is at least one company in the industry who think Call of Duty is not that big of a franchise. That’s because one such industry insider wrote UK’s regulator, the CMA, to tell them exactly this. They explained that the gaming audience is finicky and has rejected Call of Duty games before.
The EU Commission had earlier run into a little communications gaffe itself, when an EU employee in a different department made some tweets suggesting the regulator had already decided to block Microsoft.
So if the FTC had already resolved to block the purchase and take it to court and the UK is still making a good show of objectivity, the EU has to prove their investigation is being pursued in good faith.
After all, as has now become apparent, one or more regulators blocking the purchase would not be the end of everything, as Microsoft is ready to defend their case in court. In fact, the case against the purchase is possibly insufficient to defend in court, as a legal expert had explained FTC’s precarious position.
As unlikely as it seems, Microsoft is not the only party in the defensive in the course of this investigation.
Source: Reuters via Video Games Chronicle
