Sony will be competitive even if Microsoft acquires Call of Duty, CMA refutes Ryan’s thesis

Sony Interactive Entertainment You will compete though Microsoft You will get the chain Call of duty. In fact, the CMA, that is, the English Antitrust Authority, dismantled the thesis voiced by the company led by Jim Ryan to try to prevent the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by the Redmond house.

The news is official and comes from a review of the document with partial conclusions related to the acquisition. After conducting further investigations and more accurately assessing Microsoft’s position and progress in recent weeks, the organization no longer sees the risk of this happening closing strategy Gross by Microsoft, i.e. denying competitors Activision Blizzard content, particularly Call of Duty.

CMA: In paragraph 1.6 of the document, we can read that the CMA has tentatively concluded that even if some of Microsoft’s strategies may somewhat reduce PS5 supply, “it will not materially affect its competitiveness.” In short, the opposite of what Sony said, that is, it cannot protect itself from losing Call of Duty.

In short, it appears that one of the reasons for CMA’s general change of line toward the acquisition is precisely the assessment of Microsoft’s greater openness with the Call of Duty series. Agreements with cloud gaming companies and contract offers also with Sony itself must have been read in a positive light by the CMA’s directors, who have tentatively changed their minds about the acquisition, at least with regard to the risks of reducing Sony’s competitiveness. Anything can still happen, but it’s definitely a win for Microsoft.