Microsoft (Microsoftml2) responded to a series of concerns from the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) about its ongoing $68 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard and presented an interesting statistics.
As to whether Microsoft has Call of Duty (COD) will unfairly hinder PlayStation, Microsoft claims that all Call of Duty players on PlayStation can be transferred to Xbox, and Sony 's player base will still be "much larger" than its own.
Microsoft did not explain its calculation method in detail here, but pointed out in the comments that PlayStation's current host installation base is 150 million, while Xbox's installation base is 63.7 million.
This is part of a series of comments on the latest report of the CMA, which repeats concerns that many UK regulators and other parts of the world have raised.
For those following the case, the latest intervention from CMA is not surprising – it is the next step in the regulator’s near-term roadmap of how and when it will participate in the final ruling. This month will receive the CMA's October "issue statement" - a document that appears to be a public response to by Microsoft now.
usually has the topic covered – around the possibility of potentially hurting competitors in this deal, if Microsoft owns Activision Blizzard’s franchise (mainly Call of Duty) to gain too many advantages to be able to leverage their brand power to become the dominant market leader in the console market and cloud streaming.
Specifically, CMA believes that the protocol may harm Sony, but it will also harm other gaming platform services, such as Google (which may be gone now), Amazon and Nvidia. "Full control over this powerful directory, especially given Microsoft's strong position in game consoles, operating systems and cloud infrastructure, could hurt consumers by hurting the competitiveness of Microsoft's closest gaming rival Sony, thus bringing harm to consumers," CMA wrote. "Other existing competitors and potential new entrants could have brought healthy competition with innovative multi-game subscriptions and cloud gaming services."
in response, and Microsoft said that this "unproven damage theory" is not even enough to guarantee CMA's current phase two investigation -- which was launched on September 1.
In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Microsoft said: "The claim that existing market leaders who think that they have clear and lasting market power may be taken back by the third largest supplier because they lose access to a game is unreliable."
"While Sony may not welcome intensified competition, it has the ability to adapt and compete. Players will eventually benefit from this growing competition and choice."
ml0 "If any consumer decides to move from a PlayStation that doesn't choose a new way of gaming to a selective platform (Xbox), then that's what individual gaming platforms should consider to improve benefits and encourage consumer conversion behavior. This is not something the CMA should try to stop."
CMA will notify Microsoft of its interim findings in January 2023, when it can seek possible remedies for any crux of the problem raised. The regulatory authority's final report – and the overall ruling – will be released at the latest on March 1 next year.
