Major regulator sides with Sony over Microsoft/Activision deal

The Competition and Markets Authority in the United Kingdom has not been swayed by Microsoft's stance that the Activision acquisition would not affect the gaming landscape detrimentally.

That's a sorely earned win for Sony. The corporation has stated that the current terms of Microsoft's offer are "inadequate on many levels" even though Microsoft has committed to the pledge that Call of Duty is a multiplatform release for some years to come. Moreover, Sony sent CEO Jim Ryan to direct discussions with European regulators to convince them of its case.

While you're here, why not dive into some Dark Water?

Now, the CMA has sided with Sony, stating that there would be a “substantial lessening of competition” between PlayStation and Xbox should the acquisition be finalised in its present form. Naturally, Microsoft has been doing its utmost to assure all stakeholders that the acquisition is a good idea, including the guarantee to developers that they would receive "better revenue and fair marketplace rules" and "greater flexibility in payment systems".

In spite of this sermonising, the CMA continued to claim there is a "realistic prospect" that Microsoft would “[withhold or degrade] Activision’s content - including popular games such as CoD - from other consoles or multi-game subscription services". To add insult to injury, the regulator said that the possible prioritised presence of Call of Duty on Xbox consoles or Xbox subscription services "capture[s] the most dedicated CoD gamers... whilst continuing to generate revenues from less dedicated PlayStation CoD gamers".

Cor. Well, that's going to be a tough one to recover from for Microsoft. There are still regulatory groups out there who have not passed their judgement so it's possible that it's still to play for.