UK CMA concerned over Microsoft’s planned Activision Blizzard acquisition

We learned a while ago that the UK authorities had begun their investigation into Microsoft's planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard and after gathering preliminary information, they have come to the decision that Microsoft owning the publisher could impact competition in the market. Now, the CMA will move into phase two of its investigation. 

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has revealed it will move on to phase two of its investigation. The initial investigation found that Microsoft having control over popular franchises like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft could lead to issues for competitors, like Sony. Microsoft has already responded, saying it will cooperate with the CMA and all regulators across the world currently looking into the deal.

Microsoft also used the opportunity to reiterate that it plans to keep popular franchises like Call of Duty multi-platform. While Microsoft said this once before, many thought that COD would eventually go exclusive after Sony's marketing rights deal with Activision ends.

That won't be the case though. Microsoft plans to treat Activision Blizzard's pillar franchises the same way it treats Minecraft – meaning continued multiplatform releases with crossplay enabled for all platforms.

Whether or not that will be enough to satisfy the CMA's concerns, as well as the concerns of other regulators, still remains to be seen.

KitGuru Says: Call of Duty is one of the biggest franchises in the world and is consistently a best-selling game each year. If the game were to be removed from PlayStation, it would swiftly lose that position. With that in mind, handling it in a similar manner to Minecraft makes perfect sense. 

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