Most people in favour of $100b Microsoft deal

The UK’s anti-competition regulatory body has said that over 75% of public comments received about a $100 billion acquisition were in favour

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has said that roughly three quarters of submissions from the public about Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard were in favour of the deal going ahead.

As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, the CMA received about 2600 emails from the public regarding the deal, of which 2100 were considered valid. The remaining 500 were excluded, because, the CMA says, they contained “abusive content, or were blank, unintelligible, stated to be from non-UK customers, or not in English”.

Of the 2100 valid submissions, 75% were in favour of the $100 billion deal going ahead, while the remaining 25% were against it. The CMA says that a negligible number of submissions took no clear stance on the matter.

The CMA also included some examples of submissions’ reasoning, both for and against the deal, and there’s some interesting points made. Those in favour generally argued that Microsoft was behind Sony and Nintendo in gaming, and that the deal would allow them to compete more effectively.

If successful, Microsoft will also gain access to Blizzard properties such as Diablo, World of Warcraft, and Overwatch. Picture: Activision Blizzard

Other reasons included that the deal was a reasonable reaction to Sony’s business model, which has included paying third party developers for exclusive content, like Final Fantasy and the recently-announced Silent Hill games. Those in favour argue that Microsoft has no incentive to make Call of Duty exclusive to the Xbox platform, as it would essentially lose the company revenue from missed sales on other platforms.

Microsoft has argued the same in its submissions to regulators around the world, and even recently publicly committed not only to bringing future Call of Duty games to PlayStation consoles for ten years, but also bringing Call of Duty to Nintendo consoles.

Those against the deal argued that Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard would lead to consolidation and “set a harmful precedent in the gaming industry of acquiring large publishers rather than encouraging organic growth”. They also argue that Microsoft would likely make Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox consoles, like it did with Bethesda games like Starfield after its acquisition of ZeniMax Media.

Much of the conversation around the deal has focused on Call of Duty, which Microsoft says isn’t the most important aspect. Picture: Activision Blizzard

Despite all the shouting about Call of Duty, Xbox CEO Phil Spencer has said that, for Microsoft, the deal isn’t “all about Call of Duty”. In a recent podcast appearance, Spencer said that Activision Blizzard’s mobile development assets, like Candy Crush developer King, were far more important to ensuring long-term growth for the company’s gaming business.

The CMA is expected to complete its investigation into the proposed acquisition by March 1, although other regulators, like the USA’s FTC, may take longer to reach a decision.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.