“In particular, the Commission is concerned that, by acquiring Activision Blizzard, Microsoft may foreclose access to Activision Blizzard’s console and PC video games, especially to high-profile and highly successful games (so-called ‘AAA’ games) such as ‘Call of Duty’,” the European Commission said. The regulatory body also expressed concern that Microsoft had the opportunity to close off access to big name games from competing subscription and cloud streaming services, games deemed “key for the provision of the nascent services”. It was felt this could lead to “higher prices, lower quality and less innovation” that may end up being passed on to players. The UK’s competition regulators, the Competition And Markets Authority, decided at the start of September to go ahead with an in-depth secondary investigation into the potential Activision Blizzard buyout, citing similar concerns to the EU body. Microsoft has insisted that buying Activision Blizzard won’t affect big name series such as Call Of Duty, going as far as to say that they aren’t “must have” games. They later clarified to us that they meant that as a “legal term of art” rather than placing value on the output of Activision Blizzard’s development teams. We’ll continue to keep you updated on Microsoft’s proposed buyout of Activision Blizzard as it develops. Activision Blizzard are currently the subject of a number of legal actions, labour disputes and allegations of workplace harassment. Rock Paper Shotgun will continue to write about these issues, as well as covering Activision Blizzard games as part of our commitment to cover subjects of interest to our readers. The latest news can always be found under our Activision Blizzard tag.
