The dawn of the monopolization has been stopped in its tracks…for now. The UK regulators have officially BLOCKED the $75B Microsoft-Activision deal on the grounds that it would totally monopolize the cloud-gaming market, rather than the blocking titles from rival competitors.
Even if the major concerns I had were disregarded, I’m just happy this deal is getting blocked.
So, for those who don’t know, the UK’s antitrust regulators from the country’s Competiton and Market Authority have just announced that they will be blocking the $75B proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft on the grounds that the deal would hinder development and competition in the cloud service gaming industry, rather than blocking it on grounds of Microsoft blocking Activision titles from rival platforms as I’ve been warning against these last few months.
Now, personally, I would obviously have blocked this deal on the grounds of both cloud service gaming and title distribution as it’s only a matter of time before all the games from the studios Microsoft has recently bought will be Xbox exclusives.
CEO of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer has already vowed to make more Xbox exclusive titles with Starfield, Redfall, Forza Motorsports, S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2: Heart of Chernobyl, and Planet of Lana all titles set to be exclusive to the platform for the year 2023 alone, while huge franchises like The Elder Scrolls have been rumored to meet a similar fate.
Yes, it’s true that Sony has been the ruthless leader in buying studios and turning their games into PlayStation Exclusives industry as it currently has 286 exclusive titles, but Microsoft has a respectable 59 exclusive titles of their own and many more to come. Needless to say, the inevitable trend of forcing all the game developers owned by either Sony or Microsoft to make exclusive titles to the, respective, console is not slowing down, and such a thing happening to Activision games would have been a disaster.
Let’s not forget that Activision is the developer of Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, both of which are some of the most successful gaming franchises of all-time. The Call of Duty series currently has over 400M copies sold in the franchises’ 20-year history, while World of Warcraft has peaked at an astronomical 12M active players in 2010 (the most ever) and currently has around 1.20M active players.
Simply put, these are two massive franchises that would be huge draws to new Xbox consoles and Xbox Game Pass if they were Xbox exclusives.
Now, as for the actual reason why this deal was blocked, I’m glad the UK regulators have seen the dangerous potential of Microsoft owning both Xbox Cloud Gaming (aka: Xbox Game Pass), Azure Gaming, and the sole rights to add all Activision Blizzard games into cloud gaming options.
I’m not sure if these numbers are accurate as I’ve only seen them come from the Competiton and Market Authority bodies’ statement, but the body claims that this deal would hand over 60-70% of the entire cloud gaming industry to Microsoft if completed. Honestly, I have no idea if that’s true, but it would make sense given how massive a presence Microsoft already has within the industry and what adding a studio the size of Activision would do.
So, in the words of the regulators, this deal would “standardize the terms and conditions on which games are available, as opposed to them being determined by the dynamism and creativity of competition in the market.” And that’s simply not a state I or anyone else should want the gaming industry to be in.
Nevertheless, like I said, I’m just glad this deal is getting blocked (barring any appeal that overturns the decision) as the gaming world is better off without the overbearing, greedy presence of a megalithic Microsoft.
Images Source: Featured Image: (Activision Blizzard) (World of Warcraft: Shadowlands Cinematic Trailer – YouTube)
