Microsoft and Activision Blizzard Met With UK Regulators Over Deal - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 March 2023 / 3,786 Views
Microsoft and Activision Blizzard met with UK regulators, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), this week to work out proposals and remedies over Microsoft's acquisition of the Activision Blizzard, according to a report from Bloomberg who spoke with people familiar with the discussions.
Microsoft lawyers attended a private hearing in London with the CMA "to discuss the regulator’s provisional findings and assess the feasibility of proposed remedies," according to the sources.
The sources say Microsoft is willing to play for a third-party monitor to oversee its compliance with remedies as a way to "relieve the CMA from having to devote resources to make sure the tech giant follows through on its promises." The CMA with its provisional assessment did leave the door open for behavioral remedies.
Activision Blizzard met wit the CMA separately on Wednesday and another hearing with Sony is scheduled for next week.
The CMA CEO Sarah Cardell said behavioral remedies are disfavored "particularly in a sector where technology or business models are changing quickly." US and UK regulators haven't been the biggest fan of behavioral remedies in recent years.
The meetings come a week after Microsoft and Activision Blizzard lawyers met with European Union regulators, the European Commission, in Brussels.
Microsoft and Activision Blizzard plant to submit a revised proposal to the European Commission this week, according to people familiar with the matter. The EU regulators extended their deadline by 10 days to April 25.
To mitigate some of the concerns from regulators Microsoft has signed a 10-year partnership with Nvidia to bring Xbox games on PC to the Nvidia GeForce Now cloud gaming service. If Microsoft's Activision Blizzard deal is approved it will bring games from Activision Blizzard to GeForce Now, including Call of Duty.
Microsoft has also signed a "binding 10-year legal agreement" with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty games to Nintendo platforms if Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition is approved.
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer this week stated the company will treat Call of Duty the same way it does with Minecraft keeping the game multiplatform and available on as many platforms as possible.
"We want to increase the places where people can play Call of Duty," said Spencer at the time. "I think a little bit like Minecraft. I think when we acquired Minecraft, our monthly active player base was 20-30 million. I'm doing this from memory, but I think that's about the size Minecraft was. And I think it's about maybe 120 million monthly players on Minecraft."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Tip : read and check the article before you publish. There are quite a few mistakes.
Microsoft is willing to play for a third-party - pay
Activision Blizzard met wit the CMA separately - with
Activision Blizzard plant to submit - plan
The commitment being made a good but the idea of 10 years deal for Nintendo is odd to me, if the entries are profitable why stop at 10 years, carry on. Why just CoD? Add more games. Why isn't Acvisition already dipping into Nintendo money as well? Why does it take MS buying them for 70billion? This also said they could also just sell some of the IPs that come with Activision if they wanted, to essentially 'lighten the load'. Keep that which is profitable, but allow other developers and publishers have a go at IPs Activision not worth it.
Because no one does 10 year deals. Its just a ball park figure.
Also, deals can be renewed.
Yes, no one does 10 year deals. It's odd. Activision can add CoD to Nintendo consoles now.
Remember Sony have the marketing rights to CoD. Maybe that's why there was no Nintendo version.
Mincecraft wasn't on Nintendo either until MS brought Mojang, then decided to release Minecraft on WiiU etc.
MS was always planning to bring it to Nintendo. The 10 year deal is simply a way to show their commitment.
Id like to see Sony sign a similar deal to bring Bungie titles to Nintendo.
