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Microsoft has been attempting to get a deal for its buyout of Activision Blizzard and has offered various contracts in this regard. However, the United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has shown its disapproval of the acquisition due to multiple reasons, to which Activision now responded.
On February 8, the CMA published its findings stating that if the deal goes through, it would impact UK's gamers. This is because it would lead to higher prices of games, fewer choices in terms of products, and cause harm to healthy market competition. CMA suggested that Microsoft's acquisition could work by making Call of Duty an independent company. Activision's response to this can be found below.
Activision Blizzard concurs that Microsoft's buyout could be healthy for the UK economy
Activision Blizzard does not agree with the CMA's conclusion of the buyout harming the competition and rather suggests that it would be best for UK gamers and the country's economy.
According to the CMA, partial or whole exclusivity of Call of Duty would highly harm the competition between the two console companies. However, Microsoft denies that it would make Call of Duty an Xbox exclusive and keep it 100% equally accessible. In this regard, Rima Alaily, the tech giant's corporate vice president and deputy general counsel:
"We are committed to offering effective and easily enforceable solutions that address the CMA's concerns. Our commitment to grant long term, 100% equal access to Call of Duty to Sony, Nintendo, Steam, and others preserves the deal’s benefits to gamers and developers and increases competition in the market. 75% of respondents to the CMA‘s public consultation agree that this deal is good for competition in UK gaming."
Moreover, Activision Blizzard's EVP of Corporate Affairs and CCO, Lulu Cheng, states that CMA didn't mention Nintendo even after Microsoft's guarantee to release Call of Duty on the Japanese company's devices for ten years, which would bring games to more platforms, increasing competition in the market.
Contradicting the CMA's publication, the two companies believe that the entire UK economy can grow productively and sustainably while providing great choices and fair deals for gamers. In this regard, Rima Alaily said:
"Our commitment to grant long term, 100% equal access to Call of Duty to Sony, Nintendo, Steam, and others preserves the deal’s benefits to gamers and developers and increases competition in the market. 75% of respondents to the CMA‘s public consultation agree that this deal is good for competition in UK gaming."
Activision Blizzard also stated that the CMA's ability to disapprove of the deal will have long-running consequences and hopes that both parties (itself and Microsoft) will have a chance to respond before the regulatory body makes a final decision.
Both Sony and Microsoft have presented their varying opinions on the CMA's investigation of the buyout, which began in July 2022 and has gone seen various discussions between the involved companies. A final decision is yet to be made.
