![]() There are other potential players in this space, including publishers and investors such as Embracer and Tencent. Whereas Valve has a significant audience, plus a plethora of developer partners, but it’s lacking when it comes to regular first-party content. PlayStation and Nintendo have some big games, but are having to use other cloud partners for its technology (including Microsoft’s Azure). Google and Amazon also operate big cloud services, and they have access to large gaming communities via the likes of YouTube and Twitch, but they are lacking in content. Microsoft is really the only company that tickets all three of those ‘Cloud, Community and Content’ boxes. Microsoft has a strong line-up of games already, and with Activision Blizzard, would add some of the biggest titles in the world to that roster. And finally, and most importantly, it’s about ‘Content’, which are the games that will drive players to the service. ![]() Cloud is about the technology needed to deliver such an experience, and Microsoft is one of the biggest providers of cloud services in the world (namely through Azure). Xbox leader Phil Spencer has frequently talked up Microsoft’s potential in game streaming by citing ‘Content, Cloud and Community’, which he says are the three things you need to launch a successful streaming service.Ĭommunity refers to large groups of engaged players, which Microsoft has through Xbox, PC and – potentially – Call of Duty. This is likely to alarm Microsoft, because although it may intend to release Call of Duty on PlayStation consoles going forward, it almost certainly has no intention of putting the game into Sony’s PS Plus service, or to allow the game to be streamed via a competitor. "If the industry pivots towards streaming and subscriptions, it’s not hard to imagine Microsoft being a clear leader" Because the regulator also talks about the potential harm that might happen should Call of Duty be exclusive to Microsoft’s subscription service (Game Pass) and streaming service (Xbox Cloud Gaming). But regardless of which side of the debate you fall on, the CMA’s concerns go deeper than just whether one console is likely to defeat the other. In fact, according to its calculations, Sony would still operate the world’s most popular games console even without Call of Duty. Microsoft insists it won’t do that, and that even if it did, it wouldn’t suddenly make them a dominant player in the market. So much of the focus around the Activision Blizzard acquisition has been on Call of Duty, and whether it might become exclusive to Xbox consoles. And it’s why both Microsoft, and its chief competitor Sony, have devoted so much time and energy into reacting and counter-reacting to what’s going on in the UK. In other words, Microsoft is right to be anxious over what the CMA might do in terms of its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. When it comes to the digital economy, the CMA has been paying close attention to the increasing dominance of players such as Google, Meta and Amazon, and has talked extensively at the importance of competition and innovation in the digital world. The CMA also blocked the high-profile merger of Sainsbury’s and Asda in 2019, which shows it’s unafraid to get in the way of some of the biggest deals. This included Facebook/Meta’s acquisition of Giphy. As a result, the CMA blocked three deals from taking place over the last year, the highest it’s ever prohibited. This is because the group now has more powers to look at a broader range of mergers and acquisitions, which would have previously only been seen by the European Commission. Whereas you can make educated guesses on what the US and EU regulators might do, the CMA has made some big and surprising decisions since the UK exited the European Union. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority is the wildcard in Microsoft’s bid to acquire Activision Blizzard.
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