Console Market Wouldn’t Be Endangered by Microsoft’s Acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Admits CMA

Today, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) shared an update on its investigation surrounding Microsoft’s proposed deal to acquire Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion.

In the press release, the CMA admits there wouldn’t be any competition dangers to the console market as the potential advantages of Microsoft making Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox consoles wouldn’t be worth the cost of losing all the revenue the franchise’s games make on PlayStation platforms. This is, after all, what Microsoft had been claiming all along.

It’s also a U-turn compared to what the CMA said in early February when it still believed Microsoft would have reason to add Call of Duty to its list of Xbox exclusives.

Martin Coleman, chairman of the CMA’s investigation, said today in a statement:

Provisional findings are a key aspect of the merger process and are explicitly designed to give the businesses involved, and any interested third parties, the chance to respond with new evidence before we make a final decision.

Having considered the additional evidence provided, we have now provisionally concluded that the merger will not result in a substantial lessening of competition in console gaming services because the cost to Microsoft of withholding Call of Duty from PlayStation would outweigh any gains from taking such action.

Our provisional view that this deal raises concerns in the cloud gaming market is not affected by today’s announcement. Our investigation remains on course for completion by the end of April.

As outlined in the latter part of the statement, the updated take on the console market does not affect the CMA’s considerations with regard to the cloud gaming market. That’s probably why Microsoft has focused hard on making deals to bring not only Xbox (and Bethesda games) to several third-party cloud gaming services like GeForce NOW, Boosteroid, and Ubitus; it also made a point to explicit mention that all Activision Blizzard games would be included in those deals, should regulators approve the acquisition of the publisher.

Over the next month or so, we should learn whether the biggest acquisition in gaming history will go through or not. The CMA’s decision has to be rendered by April 26th, while the European Union (which is rumored to have largely approved the deal with no structural remedies required) may announce its verdict even sooner. Meanwhile, the FTC is still seeking documentation from Microsoft on its latest deals, including the one with Nintendo.