A British competition authority has doubts that the deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard would benefit competition in the gaming market. Xbox head Phil Spencer responded with a blog post, promising that Call of Duty will be available on Game Pass along with other major brands from Activision Blizzard.
Here is the background:
- Microsoft announced in January 2022 that they want to acquire the gaming company Activision Blizzard
- However, the deal is not finalized yet. Competition authorities worldwide are monitoring the process and analyzing its impact on the market. They want to exclude an excessively powerful market position for Microsoft.
- Sony argued, that particularly Call of Duty is a game series that could change market conditions. There is no competition for the shooter series. With these arguments, the Japanese gaming company is trying to prevent the deal. Microsoft counters.
What has happened now? According to “gamesindustry.biz”, the British competition authority CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) has classified the deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard as detrimental to competition in an initial review phase. The report states:
[The purchase] is expected to significantly reduce competition in a market or markets in the United Kingdom.
Two arguments led the competition authorities to their conclusion:
- The deal could lead Microsoft to “withhold or weaken” Activision Blizzard’s content from other consoles or subscription services.
- Microsoft could leverage its broader ecosystem along with Activision’s catalog to “create barriers to entry and exclude competitors from cloud gaming services.”
In a second phase, further steps are now being examined, and Microsoft has the opportunity to address the authority’s concerns.
In the podcast from MeinMMO, we also talked about the deal:
How does Microsoft respond? In a statement from Xbox head Phil Spencer, the manager makes it clear that no protectionist measures are planned. On the contrary. They want to enable more gamers to access the games.
This is not limited to Xbox. They want to enable players to decide how and where to play. Whether on mobile, PC, or console – developers will benefit from these possibilities, and that is the goal: more innovation through greater availability.
This is to happen in two ways:
- The subscription option through Game Pass
- Make more games available on mobile, for example through cloud services
Then Spencer says exactly what Sony has been fearing over the past few months:
The Game Pass enables developers to provide more games for more players, not fewer. We intend to make Activision Blizzard’s popular game library – including Overwatch, Diablo, and Call of Duty – available on Game Pass and to expand these gaming communities. By providing players with even more value, we hope to continue to grow Game Pass and extend its appeal to mobile devices and all connected devices.
Furthermore, Spencer promises that Call of Duty will also continue to appear on PlayStation in the future. He even states that CoD will be released on the same day as on all other platforms.
As an example, he mentions Minecraft, whose developer Mojang was acquired by Microsoft in 2014. They have had good experiences by keeping the game open for all platforms instead of closing it off. They want to do the same in the future with titles from Activision Blizzard.
Spencer believes that a thorough examination will show that the deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard enriches the industry and benefits players.
So CoD Day-1 in Game Pass? How the current announcements will affect the release of Call of Duty in Game Pass remains to be seen. Currently, there are no indications that the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will be available in Game Pass at launch.
However, the older games, the CoDs from recent years could land in the Pass quickly. Some of them are still actively played, especially the predecessor of the latest CoD – Modern Warfare from 2019.
For now, it remains to be seen how the situation develops. Whether the deal will even go through. But this announcement could turn into a nightmare for Sony, which they desperately want to prevent. Also considering the games from Blizzard:
