Today I wanted to discuss Microsoft’s plans to take over Activision Blizzard in light of the British Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) decision to investigate the impact of any such takeover on game players and the wider gaming industry.
Why is the CMA investigating the Microsoft takeover of Activision
In January 2022, Microsoft proposed a $68.7 billion takeover of Activision Blizzard, announced in January 2022. In what would be Microsoft’s biggest takeover yet.
Activision and Blizzard are major game publishers and publish several popular games, including the Call of duty series, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush Saga.
The British Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will investigate the proposed takeover further. The CMA are concerned that the takeover of Activision by Microsoft “will harm its rivals.” You can learn more from the BBC news story regarding the announced further investigation of the takeover.
Microsoft currently develops and develops the Microsoft Xbox range of gaming consoles. There are concerns that Activision games would no longer be released simultaneously on the Sony PlayStation as on Xbox and the PC.
Other countries are also investigating the takeover.
How has Microsoft responded to these investigations of the Activision takeover
In response to the investigation into Microsoft’s proposed takeover of Activision by some country regulators, including the British Competition and Marketing Authorities, Phil Spencer – CEO of Microsoft gaming, published the company response on the Microsoft block. You can read the full response here.
Phil confirmed in his response that future games in the Call of duty series would continue to be published on the Sony PlayStation simultaneously on the Microsoft Xbox and the PC.
Phil also stated in his response that one of the main objectives of the Activision takeover was to strengthen Microsoft’s position in the Mobile gaming sector. Activision Candy Crush series of games are very popular on Mobile phones.
My thoughts
Quite rightly, the CMA and other national regulators are concerned about Microsoft’s takeover of Activision. The CMA concerns appear to revolve around the potential impact of the takeover on Microsoft rivals such as Sony and potentially other gaming services. While related, my concerns in writing this post are from the gamer perspective, who already have to deal with the annoyance of exclusivity and time-based exclusivity of games on one platform or another.
I’m sure Activision will publish new games in existing series, such as Call of Duty, on all platforms simultaneously. My concern is that any new games not part of an existing series published by Activision will be Xbox and PC exclusive. Microsoft took over Bethesda last year, and Starfield, which isn’t part of an existing series of Bethesda games, will be an Xbox and PC exclusive release. I believe the same will happen with Activision.
Gaming consoles or gaming PC are not cheap and consumers owning more than one game console isn’t good for the environment either. Publishers would also have the benefit of more potential customers if they published on all gaming platforms which are capable of running them. If publishers are not prepared to do this, legislation is required to protect the consumer.
Conclusion
I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
If you found this article interesting, why don’t you look at my comparison between Civilization and Humankind?