EU likely to hand next setback to Microsoft in Activision deal

Commission is preparing a statement of objections

Marco Wutz | Jan 16, 2023

EU likely to hand next setback to Microsoft in Activision deal /

Things just don’t seem to go Microsoft’s way: According to a report from Reuters, the European Commission is preparing to issue a statement of objections listing all of its concerns regarding the planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft.

The Xbox maker will receive this charge sheet in the coming weeks and may then address the points raised within it to avoid an antitrust warning by the European Union. EU authorities have set a deadline for April 11, 2023, to come to a final decision.

Microsoft announced a $69 billion USD deal in January 2022 to acquire Activision Blizzard, though several important players in market regulation have not given the deal a green light so far. While authorities in Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Serbia are okay with the acquisition as is, both the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of the US and the Competition and Market Authority (CMA) of the UK have openly voiced their concerns.

Sony is seen as one of the main opponents of the deal, fearing that Microsoft would make Call of Duty an Xbox and PC exclusive game. The Xbox maker repeatedly tried to reach out to Sony with offers to alleviate these fears and recently announced a deal with Nintendo in which it commits to deliver Call of Duty games to the Japanese company’s consoles for ten years.

With EU authorities potentially throwing a wrench in Microsoft’s plans as well, closing the deal becomes ever more challenging.

At least things look good for Microsoft in games development with a showcase being planned for January 25, 2023, which will reveal release dates for highly-anticipated titles such as Redfall.

Published Jan 16, 2023

MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg