It’s definitely not the best year of Microsoft. The company’s attempt to purchase Call of Duty producer Activision Blizzard is not going to happen too soon, as per a new report that talks about an appeals procedure that is presently underway. Apparently, the worst is yet to come: Microsoft will reportedly have to wait a full ten years before trying again to buy Activision if its first attempt is unsuccessful.
Here’s an excerpt of the final report regarding Microsoft’s case:
Prohibition would be affected by accepting undertakings under section 82 of the Act or making an order under section 84 of the Act, prohibiting the Merger and preventing the Parties from attempting to merge for a further period: our normal practice would be to prevent a future merger between the Parties for the next ten years, absent a change of circumstances.
Quite tough, isn’t it?!
Well, we’re not lawyers or something, but it sure does look like hell-time for Microsoft. Although we won’t pretend to grasp every bit or the full context in this instance, that seems fairly obvious to everyone’s eyes. On another fairly interesting matter, can we all take a step back and remember how Microsoft previously stated that Sony has ten years to develop its own Call of Duty rival? Well, we believe Sony could actually accomplish such a thing in a similar amount of time.
What are your thoughts about Microsoft’s case? Do you think the company will finally get what it wants or the UK regulations will just turn worse?
Despite the CMA’s opposition to its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft is still pursuing many deals in the cloud gaming space. For instance, the tech giant recently revealed that it has partnered for 10 years with European cloud gaming provider Nware. The new collab will get us the chance to stream Xbox games on the platform.