It looks like the Microsoft Activision deal will end up being approved in the U.K. after all. U.K. regulator Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has made public its provisional ruling on the acquisition, dealing a huge blow to Sony.
Microsoft Activision deal will not lessen competition, says CMA
The CMA has said in its provisional ruling that it does not believe that Microsoft Activision deal being approved will result in “substantial” lessening of competition in the U.K. The regulator came to this conclusion after seeing additional evidence that making games like Call of Duty exclusive to Microsoft’s ecosystem will incur significant losses.
“The updated analysis now shows that it would not be commercially beneficial to Microsoft to make CoD exclusive to Xbox following the deal, but that Microsoft will instead still have the incentive to continue to make the game available on PlayStation,” part of the statement reads.
This statement will come as a huge relief to Microsoft. U.K. took the toughest stance on the acquisition, going as far as proposing that Microsoft should offload Call of Duty if it wants the deal to pass.
Sony has not responded to the CMA’s provisional findings yet, and it remains to be seen what remedies the CMA will ask Microsoft to implement in order for it to seal the deal in April.
