Microsoft is in the process of acquiring Activision Blizzard, a game publisher known for the popular FPS Call of Duty series, but it is under investigation by regulators for fear of leading to market monopoly. Microsoft says that it will continue to provide the Call of Duty series for PlayStation to SIE for a smooth acquisition, but SIE is showing a cautious stance as Microsoft once acquired Gemimax, the parent company of game publisher Bethesda.
In January of last year, Microsoft announced the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The acquisition amounted to $68.7 billion. Since Activision Blizzard is making the Call of Duty series, a popular FPS game, suspicions arose that Microsoft was trying to make Call of Duty an Xbox exclusive. Regulators also expressed concerns regarding market dominance, and the Federal Trade Commission sued Microsoft.
Meanwhile, Microsoft denied the suspicion, saying that it would continue to release Call of Duty on PlayStation, while signing contracts to supply Call of Duty to Nintendo and Nvidia for 10 years.
One of the reasons SIE continues to be cautious is the acquisition of Microsoft’s Bethesda Softworks and parent company Zenimax Media from 2020 to 2021. Among the documents submitted to the British Competition and Markets Authority CMA, SIE pointed out that the European Commission had approved the acquisition of Bethesda as not raising competition concerns, but it had decided not to release Starfield on PlayStation. Bethesda executives apologized for this. situation has occurred
SIE says it can’t relieve anxiety regarding the 10-year contract Microsoft signed with Nintendo to supply Call of Duty. It also points out that even if CMA were to implement behavioral relief measures to multi-platform Call of Duty, there are numerous ways for Microsoft to evade its obligations. The CMA is expected to make a final decision on April 26.
In addition, Microsoft announced on March 14 that it had entered into a 10-year contract to provide Xbox games to Boosteroid, a new cloud game platform. Related information this placecan be found in