Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority blocked Microsoft’s acquisition of Call of Duty publisher Activision on Wednesday. File photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License photo
April 26 (UPI) — Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority decided Wednesday to block Microsoft’s proposed deal with Activision, citing Microsoft’s existing dominance in the cloud sector.
The watchdog said the $68.7 billion acquisition would “strengthen Microsoft’s dominance” in the cloud market, giving it control of Activision’s gaming franchise, including Call of Duty, Overwatch and World of Warcraft.
“Gaming is the largest entertainment sector in the UK. “Cloud gaming is growing rapidly and has the potential to transform gaming by changing the way people play, freeing people from the need to rely on expensive consoles and gaming PCs and giving them more choice about how and where they play their games,” said Martin Coleman, chairman of the independent think tank investigating the deal.
In a preliminary ruling earlier this year, the CMA found that Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision could “make Microsoft even stronger in cloud gaming and stifle competition in this growing market.”
The observer noted that Microsoft already has about 60-70% of the global cloud gaming market through Azure and Xbox Cloud Gaming services, in addition to owning the Xbox line of consoles and Windows, the leading PC operating system. .
She said there were “many significant flaws” in Microsoft’s proposals to address the concerns, including a failure to cover different cloud gaming business models, insufficient opportunities for vendors to offer games on non-Windows operating systems and standardization requirements. games are available.
In December, the US Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint against Microsoft seeking to block $69 billion. USD deal to buy Activision. Microsoft later filed a response to the FTC’s charge.
