CMA Talks To Six Microsoft Rivals About Activision Deal: Three Say No, Two Say Yes

The CMA has acquired feedback from six of Microsoft’s rivals to get their position regarding the still pending acquisition of Activision Blizzard King.

As reported by the Video Games Chronicle, the CMA shared a public summary of their survey of these competitors. Out of the six entities, three claimed that the purchase would be harmful to competition in the market, two claimed that they had no concerns about the merger, and one said that it was too early to tell.

The CMA did not disclose who the respondents were, but we can make some smart guesses of who was involved.

Of course, Sony was definitely one of the respondents, as Microsoft’s chief rival in the console video game hardware market. Sony has already expressed their dismay at the deal, so we also know they are one of the three entities that called it harmful to competition.

Nintendo was also certainly talked to by the CMA. While they are sometimes considered a separate category or market from Sony and Microsoft, they of course continue to make hardware for their games as they have for the past fifty years. Nintendo’s only public statement in relation to the deal so far has been that they accepted Microsoft’s deal to publish Call of Duty games on their platforms for ten years.

Another possible respondent was Valve, a late comer to the video game hardware space. It can be argued that their Steam Deck competes more directly to Sony’s PlayStation and Microsoft’s Xbox than Nintendo’s platforms do. However, Valve has only just entered this market, so their impact on the industry has not yet been fully verified.

Valve also received a ten year deal from Microsoft to receive Call of Duty games on their marketplace, Steam, adding an added twist to their situation. Valve has stated that they don’t need a deal because they trust the companies involved to continue bringing Call of Duty games to Steam, but interestingly have not indicated any interest in getting those Call of Duty games to be Steam Deck compatible.

Last among those potential respondents are Nvidia and Google. The two companies talked to the FTC about their objections to the Microsoft-Activision deal. Nvidia continues to run GeForce Now, and Google recently shuttered Stadia. Both are cloud gaming services that currently compete with Microsoft’s Game Pass.

It’s a strange situation for Google, as they no longer have a service to defend, but also for Nvidia. Nvidia was told to remove their Activision Blizzard titles from their library, as the company failed to make a proper deal with Activision Blizzard to offer those games after their GeForce Now service ended its beta. But that doesn’t mean the companies can’t chime in with the regulators in regards to the deal.

As we had just reported, Sony actually recently met Microsoft in private. They presumably met to hash out a deal for Call of Duty. If that’s the case, this update from the CMA may already be a few steps behind, as Microsoft and Activision may finally get approval for their deal.