Report: Microsoft's EU Remedies Only Address Cloud Streaming, Leaves Out Sony - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 21 March 2023 / 4,200 Views
Microsoft last week submitted its remedies to the European Union regulator, the European Commission, over its Activision Blizzard acquisition in order to try to get the deal approved. The regulator also moved its deadline from April 25 to May 22.
Sources who are familiar wit the matter have told Reuters that Microsoft's remedies to the European Commission include concerns over cloud streaming, but makes no mention of video game console rival, Sony with its PlayStation.
The lack of any remedies related to PlayStation suggests the regulator no longer has any concerns about competition in the video game console market.
Microsoft has recently announced it has signed multiple 10-year deals to bring Xbox games on PC to three cloud streaming services - Nvidia's GeForce Now, Boosteroid, and Ubitus.
UK regulators, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), have expressed concerns over the video game console market and Microsoft to address this has signed a 10-year deal with Nintendo to release Call of Duty on Nintendo consoles on day one with full content parity, as well as offering the same offer to Sony.
Microsoft in its own response at the remedies hearings with the CMA says that keeping Call of Duty on PlayStation consoles for 10 years is more than enough time for Sony to develop its own alternative to the popular first-person shooter series and Call of Duty will be optimized for PlayStation 5 and make full use of the features of the console if its Activision Blizzard acquisition is approved.
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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And that's right. EU and every regulator need to be focusing on the impact on the market and consumers... Not on Sony. And Microsoft knows that to a good extent.
This was obvious from the day MS decided to by ABK. But it is taking regulators one year and three months to come to this conclusion. Embarrassing
Too many believe this is about Sony. ABK is a boost across the entire gaming branch at Xbox, its not just consoles. ABK house many online MP games and also mobile Devs.
Some of the regulators have themselves made it about Sony. But now that argument is falling apart, and regulators are beginning to back away.
CMA has made it very clear now. They were concerned over Streaming not Consoles. They didn't even mention about Remedies for Sony, just Streaming networks.
But the CMA was previously very concerned about Sony's market position, and acknowledged that. They explicitly repeated that they had been concerned about Sony previous, but no longer were.
Possibly because Sony made it all about themselves and when MS closed deals with Steam, Nvidia, Nintendo and many more, realised more benefit and its a Sony issue not a industry issue.
