Report: Phil Spencer Says Xbox Will Move Ahead With Its Plans Even Without Activision - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 May 2023 / 6,078 Views
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer Thursday morning in an all-hands meeting with division employees said the company is disappointed by the UK regulator, Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), blocking Microsoft’s $67.8 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard over concerns with cloud gaming.
This is according to a report from Bloomberg who spoke with a person who attended the meeting, who asked to remain anonymous.
Spencer said the the goal of the acquisition was to speed up Microsoft's gaming plans, but it didn't represent all of the company’s gaming strategy. Xbox will move ahead with its plans even without Activision Blizzard.
Microsoft President Brad Smith was reportedly up at 2:00 am PT on Wednesday drafting a response to the CMA and Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood held a senior leadership meeting, according to the source.
The CMA in its final decision said it is concerned the "deal would alter the future of the fast-growing cloud gaming market, leading to reduced innovation and less choice for UK gamers over the years to come."
"Microsoft has a strong position in cloud gaming services and the evidence available to the CMA showed that Microsoft would find it commercially beneficial to make Activision’s games exclusive to its own cloud gaming service."
Microsoft and Activision Blizzard do plan on appealing the decision by the CMA as both are committed to the deal.
Smith in his own statement said, "We remain fully committed to this acquisition and will appeal. The CMA's decision rejects a pragmatic path to address competition concerns and discourages technology innovation and investment in the United Kingdom."
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick on the CMA decision to block the deal is "far from the final word on this deal." They will work alongside Microsoft to "contest this decision" and have "already begun the work to appeal to the UK Competition Appeals Tribunal."
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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Might as well move on if the plan doesn't go through.
I bet they go after another publisher now...
Possibly a smaller publisher. I doubt an acquisition of say EA, Take-Two, Valve, Epic Games, Bandai Namco, Ubisoft, etc would be be approved.
We had to bleed from the ass to try to get a buyout of a publisher , it failed now lets try to buy another !!!!
I bet the ABK deal still ends up going through in the end.
"We will release more controllers from now on"
I think a bit severe on them but man, I agree that they are really putting a lot of energy on those controller colors :D
Don't forget the hoodies =p
I support this deal, and even I can tell that is a good funny joke.
Amazing how obvious jokes aren’t tolerated.
Don't forget the fridge.
whats wrong with the fridge? it was soo good and cheap i got two one for me one for my friend for charismas
Up at 2am - that explains his poor response. Perhaps a little sleep was needed before his little rant at the UK.
"Dont worry xbox will stay around, even without us getting Activision Blizzard" You dont say? lol, where people expecting them to drop out of gameing? Why does this even need saying Phil?
Durrrr of course what else would they do? Call quits and leave console market tomorrow?
Probably waiting for the EU decision before announcing more acquisitions.
Especially since the corrupt UK CMA said that console gaming is no concern, MS/ Xbox should announce who else they wants to buy & soon.
