The CMA’s veto on the purchase of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft did not sit well with the Redmond giant, and this time the problem was not in Call of Duty, but in the “risk” that I say entity saw for the future of cloud gaming This position clashes head-on with that held by other competition regulatory bodies , and the truth is that it does not make any sense, especially after the concessions made by the Redmond giant.
The situation has reached a point where the CMA is left alone . As of today, most of the world’s competition regulators have approved Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard, and it finally seems that we have overcome the fever that originally generated around Call of Duty as a possible “destroyer”. of the competition”, something that did not make any sense either, since in the end it is nothing more than a game, and Nintendo has been able to overwhelm Sony despite not having said franchise.
The point is, Microsoft is pretty clear about how far it’s willing to go to buy Activision Blizzard, and it didn’t seem like it was bluffing when it said it might go ahead with the deal even though the CMA remains opposed to it, something that could do a lot of damage to UK players.
According to new information , the Redmond giant has already hired expert lawyers in the field to determine what it could do if, finally, its appeal to the CAT (Competition Appeal Court) is rejected .
In the event that the appeal is rejected, we must be clear that this would not imply the definitive blockade by the United Kingdom , since a new appeal could be brought before the courts based on the idea that said country should not be able to veto a purchase that it has been approved globally, just for the supposed “interest of consumers”. This would be an option that Microsoft would have, the other would be to go ahead with the purchase despite the refusal of the United Kingdom.
If the latter were to happen, players in the United Kingdom would be left without Activision Blizzard games, both those that are offered traditionally, either in physical or digital format, and those that are available through Game Pass. In effect, this means that the UK would be left without Call of Duty, and without franchises like Diablo, Warcraft, Overwatch and others.
Microsoft is very serious with this purchase operation, and it is normal because in the end it is key to the future of the Xbox division, and for it to be able to recover the lost ground against PlayStation. At the time of writing this article, the purchase operation has been approved by 39 countries, including all those that make up the European Community.