Plenty of surprised companies and fans woke up to the news of CMA blocking the Activision Blizzard merger. After the massive bid from Microsoft was made, there was plenty of back and forth between regulators. It was regulators’ efforts to look through the deal to make sure it didn’t harm the industry if Microsoft picked up the company. In fact, after several instances were viewed on the matter purely for the Call of Duty franchise, it started to look like Microsoft was going to get the green light.
However, that wasn’t the case, as the CMA killed off the deal and forced the Activision Blizzard merger to halt. Now, Microsoft is after an appeal, and we’re getting more insight from companies supporting this acquisition’s approval. The main reason this deal didn’t go through was that the CMA felt this acquisition would hurt cloud gaming. That’s when Nvidia stepped up to its Twitter account platform and expressed its disappointment over CMA’s decision.
One of the major cloud gaming platforms out there is Nvidia GeForce Now, which took to its Twitter account and stated that GeForce Now, along with other cloud gaming providers, would stand to gain even more catalog of video games if Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision was completed.
In the eyes of Nvidia, this acquisition is nothing more than a benefit for cloud gaming in general. Perhaps having more of these cloud gaming platforms express their approval for this deal to go through might sway the CMA to change its mind when the appeal goes through. After all, there are thousands of likes already from Nvidia’s tweet in support of Microsoft’s merger plans.
With that said, this acquisition being halted is likely viewed as a win for Sony, who has been very vocal against this purchase going through. Although, their main point of argument was Call of Duty either becoming an exclusive or PlayStation receiving an inferior version of the game.
That argument didn’t seem to hold up, but all the work from Microsoft had still went out the window since cloud gaming was the issue the regulator took up with in the end. We’ll just have to wait and see how the appeal is handled, as this is far from the only comments being made over CMA’s misunderstandings when it comes to cloud gaming contracts.
