Update:
After being viewed 42K times, here are what some viewers had to say in the comments.
The CMA wanted to block the merger no matter what, so it stopped talking with Microsoft because it was afraid Microsoft would give too many remedies for the cloud gaming fake-issue.
Quickscope Research – YouTube Comment
Me personally don’t care if people can enjoy games on other platforms, what i care about is my own pocket and Game Pass is saving me a lot of money. Having Activision games day one on Game Pass is huge.
ChillDill – YouTube Comment
“Let’s all wait to play out”, very telling, It could sound like a bluff but I wouldn’t rule it out. One single jurisdiction cannot stop a merger that another 37 jurisdictions want to pass, the international pressure is gonna be more and more intense.
Omar Paucar – YouTube Comment
Original Story…
There is plenty of chatter online over Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard. However, the deal has yet to finalize just yet as there are still regulators to navigate through. While Microsoft recently scored a big regulator with the EU, the UK CMA has proven to be a more significant challenge for the Xbox team. They had already announced that they were blocking the deal, which prompted appeals to be made.
However, CNBC recently had the chance to speak with Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, about potentially going through with the deal and outright not selling the product in the UK. That could be one means to avoid the CMA’s decision, but that’s not a choice Microsoft is keen on taking just yet. Instead, the Microsoft CEO stated that he wanted to see how it all plays out first. After all, there are a couple of appeals in the work right now to get this acquisition back into the front of the CMA.
If you don’t recall, both Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have taken on lawyers to help deal with the appeals for the CMA. But then you still have to deal with actually proving to the CMA that this acquisition wouldn’t harm the competition within the video game industry. One area that the CMA initially took issue with was Call of Duty, as it was believed that Microsoft was interested in making this franchise an exclusive for Xbox and PC platforms.
However, it was later persuaded by the CMA that Call of Duty would continue to see a release on multiple platforms outside of Microsoft. Instead, the issue the CMA took up with and denied this deal to go through was cloud gaming. It’s not a massive medium right now for enjoying video games, but the CMA is looking at the future and whether this deal would hurt competition for cloud gaming.
While Microsoft could pull away from the UK, it’s likely not something Microsoft would be interested in doing just to secure Activision Blizzard. At any rate, we have a long ways to go with the appeals and then having the CMA once again check through the different back and forth between companies on whether this deal should proceed or not. That should also open up more insight to Microsoft and competitors when it comes to their plans for cloud gaming.
