In October, UK regulator (CMA) Competition and Markets Authority detailed its issues over Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard saying that they are concerned that the deal will harm PlayStation and other multi-game subscription offerings as Microsoft may withhold Activision Blizzard content from them as well as out-competing rivals in the game streaming space. At the time, they invited members of the public to provide its opinions on the situation. Today, the CMA has released a summary of responses that they received. The CMA says that they received over 2,100 emails. Around three quarters of the emails were broadly in favor of the merger. Around a quarter were broadly against it, and there was no clear view expressed for or against the merger by a small number of respondents.
The CMA listed out a list of views that they received for and against the merger. They noted that “the publication of this summary does not in any way represent an endorsement by the CMA of these views.”
Those who were in favor said things like Sony and Nintendo are stronger than Microsoft in console gaming and the Merger will help Microsoft to compete more closely against them; the Merger will not harm rival consoles because Microsoft has made public and private commitments to keep Activision content, including Call of Duty, non-exclusive. The availability of Minecraft on rival consoles shows that Microsoft’s commercial strategy is not to make games exclusive; it is unlikely that Microsoft would make Call of Duty exclusive due to its multiplayer nature. Making Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox would only create a gap in the market that could be filled by a rival cross-platform shooter game; The Merger will push Sony to innovate, such as by improving its subscription service or creating more games to compete with Call of Duty; the Merger is a reaction to Sony’s business model for PlayStation, which has historically involved securing exclusive content or early access to popular cross-platform gaming franchises, such as Final
Fantasy and Silent Hill; The Merger will lead to more funding and higher-quality games in the industry; and more.
Views expressed against the merger include Microsoft is already dominant in PC operating systems, and this Merger is an attempt to gain a similar position in gaming; Microsoft has the resources to create an offering that competes with PlayStation exclusives without acquiring Activision; the Merger would lead to consolidation and would set a harmful precedent in the gaming industry of acquiring large publishers rather than encouraging organic growth; this would be the largest merger in gaming history, paving the way for a potential string of future acquisitions of publishers such as Take Two, EA, Ubisoft, thereby increasing concentration in the market; Microsoft can capture the multi-game subscription market after the
Merger because it can afford to add games to Game Pass at a loss; Microsoft will make Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox, just as it did with Bethesda after it acquired ZeniMax Media; and more.
You can see the full list of views by reading the official Summary of responses from members of the public to the issues statement.