Weird flex, but okay
Microsoft have justified their $68.7 billion ($56 billion) purchase ofCall Of Dutypublisher Activision Blizzard by telling regulators that the company doesn’t produce “must have” games. If that’s making you ask why they’d stump up more than any other tech buyout in history for the privilege of owning a company that doesn’t have any killer apps in its stables, then you can line up right behind me, bosmang.
Microsoft have been in the process of buying Activision Blizzard since the deal wasannouncedin January this year, with their buyout pending approval by competition regulators in many countries. The UK’s Competition And Markets Authorityissued a statementsaying they were investigating the deal early in July, with a provisional deadline for any further investigation set for the beginning of September.
“Specifically, with respect to Activision Blizzard video games, there is nothing unique about the video games developed and published by Activision Blizzard that is a ‘must have’ for rival PC and console video game distributors that could give rise to a foreclosure concern,” read Microsoft’s response to the New Zealand Commerce Commission, published ina reportfrom June. That means that Microsoft don’t consider their future ownership of Activision Blizzard’s franchises such as Call Of Duty to cause issues that would prevent their rivals – among whom they identify Valve in the PC space – from competing against them.
Microsoft clarified in their responses to the New Zealand Commerce Commission that they won’t be withdrawing support for Activision-Blizzard’s games from platforms that aren’t their own Xbox and Microsoft Store. That’s already been borne out by theupcoming reappearanceof the Call Of Duty series on Steam with October’s Modern Warfare 2. As Alice Beepointed outearlier this year though, there are plenty other reasons why corporate consolidation in the games industry isn’t necessarily a good thing.
Activision Blizzard are still dealing withlegal issuesandreportsalleging a discriminatory and harassing working environment. Actiblizz’s shareholders voted at their annual meeting in June tore-electCEO Bobby Kotick to the board of directors for another year, in spite of calls fromemployeesfor him to resign.
