Regulators recently blocked Microsoft's plan to acquire gaming company Activision Blizzard, a move that experts say could give gamers a wider range of titles.
What Facebook, Google and Others Can Learn From Microsoft's Antitrust Case | WSJ
Britain's antitrust regulator said the purchase would harm competition in cloud gaming, amid growing concerns that big tech mergers could hurt users worldwide.
“Even here in the U.S., the Federal Trade Commission has approved an administrative complaint challenging the proposed merger between Microsoft Corp. and Activision Blizzard, Inc., a video game developer,” Anat Alon-Beck, a professor of business law at Case Western Reserve University, told Lifewire in an email interview. “Remember, Microsoft sells the Xbox gaming console and also offers a video game subscription service called Xbox Game Pass, as well as a cloud-based video game streaming service. If the deal goes through, Microsoft could squeeze out competitors to its Xbox gaming consoles and its rapidly growing subscription and cloud gaming business.”
Microsoft closed a $68.7 billion deal to buy Activision, one of the world’s most popular video game publishers, in January 2022. The UK government launched an investigation and concluded that the merger could strengthen Microsoft’s position in cloud gaming, stifling competition in the growing market.
