Bro, tensions are high in the gaming world. We aren’t talking about the usual sheningans everpresent in a sometimes hostile gaming world. We’re talking about the United Kingdom shockingly and unapologetically stopping behemoth Microsoft from taking over Activision Blizzard. Had the deal went down, Microsoft was set to be the corporation behind such games as Call of Duty, Candy Crush Saga, and good old World of Warcraft.
The was a 70 billion dollar deal that’s now as good as waiting in line of Microsoft’s iconic OS trash can where files go to permanently die.
Activision Blizzard is a massive gaming playa’ who consistently has games ranking among the best sellers, most played, and most popular. Its led by Call of Duty’s massive success, but all the same, it’s a sweltering hot portfolio Microsoft clearly thought they were taking the reigns on.
But it wasn’t to be. And bizarrely, Call of Duty seems to be the reason.
The drama unfolded when last year, Sony raised concerns that Microsoft could look to manipulate Sony’s popular Playstation’s relationship with Call of Duty. Like, yeah, they could remove it in a worst case scenario and that wouldn’t be bad singularly for Sony, but consumers at large. Microsoft said such a scenario would never play out, citing “no financial incentive.”
Oddly, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) agreed that Microsoft wouldn’t make such a move. The CMA response certainly seemed to clear a straightforward path to Microsoft overtaking Activision Blizzard. However, at the last hour, CMA decided that Microsoft would have “undue powers” to shaped the cloud gaming market and denied the takeover.
The decision is odd. Its rare that a company taking over a supplier is denied. Typically, denials are reserved for companies which seek to takeover their competition. And when you rule out the idea of blocking Call of Duty from Playstation, there seems to be less obvious reasoning behind the decision.
Microsoft President Brad Smith reacted stating that this move dissuades innovation in the UK market. Lulu Cheng Meservey, chief communications officers for Activision Blizzard, dialed up the heat with her response, saying they’d “reassess our growth plans for the UK”, adding: “Innovators large and small will take note that – despite all its rhetoric – the UK is clearly closed for business.”
In odd cases featuring inconsistent rulings such as this one, a person almost wonders if the powers that be have an ax to grind with Microsoft or Activision Blizzard. Maybe there’s a movie coming some day, although less likely from Sony Studios. Seems the ending is a little too conveniently happy for them to write a script for without seeming, well, too biased.