With the Activision Blizzard deal seeing a major win this week with the FTC’s intended injunction being blocked, some fans may believe that this is the end of the story. In fact, however, there are more hurdles in the way before things will be rosy for the folk at Microsoft and ABK. While the FTC could still appeal this decision and try for an emergency block of the deal, potentially preventing it from going through by its Tuesday deadline, it only has three days to do so, and most analysts feel it is unlikely such a move would turn out to be successful.
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Assuming the deal is finalized by its deadline next Tuesday, the companies will still have to reckon with the CMA, the UK’s own regulatory agency which aimed to block the deal from going through. Now that most agencies have approved of the deal and the FTC’s injunction has been stopped, the CMA stands as the lone opposing force against the Activision Blizzard acquisition.
What is Next For Microsoft and Activision Blizzard?
Microsoft and Activision Blizzard are currently attempting to appeal the CMA’s decision. Given that so little stands in the companies’ way now, it is likely that some deal will be struck to ensure the CMA budges. It is even unlikely that the companies will have to make too many concessions, if any, to make that happen. While the Australian and New Zealand agencies are still investigating, it is unlikely they would cause much trouble for the deal at this stage.
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Should the deal be finalized soon, and it is likely that it will be, it becomes much harder for agencies such as the FTC to undo it than it would have been to prevent it in the first place. As a result, the biggest hurdles facing Microsoft and Activision Blizzard now are those of the new landscape in gaming that this may result in.
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Many gamers worry this will spark a buying war wherein Sony and Microsoft each try to snatch up as many publishers and studios as possible, leaving the gaming industry fractured with most major games being exclusive to one platform or another. Furthermore, Microsoft has already signed deals and made comments in court that will ensure Call of Duty‘s availability on both Nintendo and PlayStation platforms for at least another ten years, likely stretching into the next console generation.
Microsoft will now have to work hard to make this purchase worth all the time, money, and effort it took to get to this stage. In the near term, a lot is riding on the launch of Starfield to validate the Xbox brand’s power in the industry. Should the game fail to impress audiences, it may become harder for gamers to take Xbox-published titles seriously. Should it meet or exceed its lofty expectations, the stage could be set for Microsoft to dominate the gaming landscape for years to come between the many studios it owns now and those it will gain with Activision Blizzard.
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Given Xbox’s consistent bronze trophy status in the console landscape, a lot will need to be done following the Activision Blizzard deal to not keep gamers satiated both in the present and in the future. Microsoft will need to make sure its studios start to pump out a steady stream of high-quality games to keep its image up.
With games like Call of Duty, though Microsoft will only be required to make it available for the next ten years, this will still likely bring it into the next generation of consoles, which both Sony and Microsoft have predicted will arrive in the next 4-5 years. As such, should the highly popular series continue to rake in tons of cash for Microsoft, it seems unlikely they would pull it following its decade-long commitment to the Activision Blizzard franchise.
Should the games sell poorly on Nintendo platforms, potentially due to performance issues given Nintendo tends not to stay cutting edge in the power department, it may not be worth it to renew that deal, but if so, as with Minecraft, it is tough to imagine Microsoft will throw away the potential revenue stream of Activision Blizzard’s CoD games on other platforms given it remains one of the biggest gaming franchises around. That goes several times over for PlayStation, as well.
What are your thoughts on the results of this trial? Were you hoping the deal would be blocked, or are you happy to see Microsoft’s big win? Do you think Xbox can make proper use of this win in the future? Let us know in the comments and on our social media feeds!
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