To the already known complaints of sony against Microsoft before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is added those of nvidia Y Google, who show their unconditional support for the Japanese company in the face of a purchase that they consider gives an unfair competitive advantage to the owner of Xbox. Said advantage would become latent in the cloud, subscription and mobile gaming market.
It must be remembered that the transaction by which Microsoft was made with the video game developer Activision Blizzard is valued at $68.7 billion (60,326 million euros), which would make the company led by Satya Nadella the third in revenue in the world of video games, only behind Tencent and Sony.
From the first hour, Sony publicly expressed its discomfort when considering that the maintenance of the games published by Activision Blizzard on PlayStation would be jeopardized. to legal proceedings, to which Bloomberg has had accessnow adds the pressure exerted by Google and Nvidia.
For all these reasons, competent organizations from various countries are reviewing the purchase agreement, the main one being the FTC as the national consumer protection agency in the United States. This presented its formal demand last December to paralyze the process, for which the internal judgment It is expected for August 2023 and any of the firms involved could be called to testify.
It is unknown if the purchase could finally be blocked, although Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have not been slow to pronounce themselves ensuring that the agreement will not underestimate the competition, and that Xbox itself has fewer popular exclusive titles than Sony and NintendoNot to mention that it hardly has any presence in the mobile gaming segment.
A weighty complaint in the video game sector
It must be remembered that Nvidia is the manufacturer of high-quality graphics cards for games, in addition to operating the service GeForce Now, through the offer of games in the cloud. They believe that it is necessary equal and open access to video game titlesbut unlike what Sony claims, they are not against the purchase of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft.
In August 2022, Nvidia claimed that it had 20 million subscribers and was capable of supporting more than 1,400 titles, giving users free access to devices like Chromebooks.
For its part, Google represents fierce competition for Microsoft, especially in cloud computing services. Similarly, through its Android operating system, it allows the development of Activision Blizzard mobile games. Its gaming service was not as successful stadiumwhich will close soon.
The purchase of the owner of ‘Call Of Duty’
Microsoft will buy Activision Blizzard in cash, paying $95 for each of its shares, which represents a 46% premium over the initial price.
The technology giant plans to incorporate the entire Activision catalog into its subscription method Game Passwith some 35 million subscribers currently. This will report having up to 30 internal video game development studios.
With the annexation of sagas as popular as ‘World of Warcraft’, ‘Candy Crush’ either ‘Call of Duty’ Microsoft will become more powerful, already with the Halo franchise and Minecraft world-building software.
Activision Blizzard has 10,000 employeeshaving registered in 2020 net profits of 2,197 million dollars and a billing of 8,086 million dollars (7,100 million euros). However, Microsoft has ensured that Activision CEO Bobby Kotick will keep his job, albeit under the control of Phil Spencer, the CEO of Microsoft’s video game division.
Already in 2020, Microsoft announced the purchase of ZeniMax Mediaparent company of Bethesda Softworks (one of the largest private video game publishers in the world) for 7,500 million dollars.
Despite everything, Microsoft publicly assured that it had reached a ten-year pact to bring ‘Call of Duty’ to Nintendo Co’s gaming platforms and to release future versions on the platform. Steam from Valve Corp simultaneously to Xbox.
As a result of all this, Activision’s shares plummeted to a minimum, currently trading on the New York Stock Exchange at $76.75well below Microsoft’s offer to pay $95 per share.
It is unknown how the legal process will evolve, and Sony is not expected to sit idly by in the face of a deal that will make Microsoft stronger and allow it to make its Game Pass subscription service even more attractive.
