ACTIVISION BLIZZARD SALE BLOCKED

And Microsoft is very angry about it

MICROSOFT had spent 15 months in planning and negotiations to buy gaming giant Activision Blizzard in a $68.7 billion deal (the biggest in gaming history), but regulators have sunk the idea.

The British Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has cited concerns over Microsoft’s dominance in cloud gaming. It has a point; Microsoft currently has 60 to 70 percent of that market, and adding Activision Blizzard’s titles would put it in a dominant position. Microsoft had promised to keep big titles available on other platforms beyond current contracts, but the CMA didn’t think this was enough.

Microsoft is not happy. Its president, Brad Smith, called it the “darkest day in our four decades in Britain”, and that “people are shocked, people are disappointed, and people’s confidence in technology in the UK has been severely shaken”. Activision Blizzard was equally dismissive, with a spokesperson saying, “the report’s conclusions are a disservice to UK citizens”, and that “global innovators large and small will take note”.

It’s worth noting that the company has a history of ‘robust’ business practices. After the purchase of Bethesda, Microsoft ensured all future games were exclusive.

You might think there would be an obvious winner: Sony. However Microsoft might try to leverage its current position to keep the big titles off the PlayStation. There is a good reason there are regulatory bodies to stop any one company from dominating a market: it isn’t good for customers. Capitalism needs competition to work effectively, or it becomes something else.