Briefly: It is no secret that Sony is vehemently in opposition to Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, however how does the general public really feel about it? About three-quarters of individuals within the UK who commented on the merger are in favor of the Redmond agency shopping for the gaming big.
The UK’s Competitors and Markets Authority (CMA) is among the world monopoly watchdogs that’s nonetheless investigating the $68.7 billion Microsoft/Activision Blizzard deal. The company mentioned in September that the merger might result in competitors considerations throughout the online game trade. This led to the CMA opening an prolonged stage 2 section of its probe by which the acquisition faces elevated scrutiny.
A part of the CMA inquiry concerned accumulating public feedback over two weeks in October. The regulator has now revealed that it acquired round 2,600 emails, although about 500 have been discounted as a result of “they contained abusive content material (with no different substantive content material), or have been clean, unintelligible, said to be from non-UK shoppers, or not in English.”
Of the remaining 2,100 emails, round three-quarters have been broadly in favor of the merger, and round 1 / 4 have been broadly in opposition to it.
A few of the views expressed in favor of the deal level out that Sony and Nintendo are stronger than Microsoft in console gaming, and the merger will assist the Home windows maker to compete extra carefully in opposition to them. This echoes Microsoft’s personal arguments for why the deal ought to go forward.
Different pro-deal feedback embrace claims that Microsoft wouldn’t make Activision video games Xbox/PC unique as the corporate would lose important income. Once more, Microsoft has made this identical argument to regulators.
“The Merger is a response to Sony’s enterprise mannequin for PlayStation, which has traditionally concerned securing unique content material or early entry to fashionable cross-platform gaming franchises, akin to Ultimate Fantasy and Silent Hill,” wrote one other pro-merger commentator.
Not everybody was in favor of the deal. A few of the 25% feedback in opposition to it nervous that it might set a dangerous precedent within the gaming trade of buying giant publishers somewhat than encouraging natural development, which some would say is already the case.
Different anti-acquisition commentators say that regardless of guarantees in any other case, Microsoft will make Name of Obligation unique to Xbox, simply because it did with Bethesda after it acquired ZeniMax Media. It might additionally give Microsoft a complete monopoly within the cloud gaming house it already dominates, stopping rivals from getting into the market.
The CMA is scheduled to launch its ultimate report on the acquisition by March 1, 2023.
Though extra of the UK public appears to favor the deal, Microsoft is dealing with a US lawsuit introduced by ten players to dam the acquisition over fears it’ll create a monopoly within the online game trade. The swimsuit comes a few weeks after the FTC additionally sued Microsoft to cease the deal.
