The UK government’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published the responses to its provisional finding that Microsoft’s proposed deal to buy Activision would not limit competition in the console space. This was a major change, as the CMA originally provisionally said it could.
The response from Sony Interactive Entertainment is what many might have expected. SIE said the CMA did a “u-turn,” calling the move “surprising, unprecedented, and irrational.” SIE said there existed a “significant body” of evidence to support the suggestion that Microsoft could be incentivized to “withhold” Activision content from PlayStation platforms, thus lessening competition.
The CMA said in its updated response that Microsoft would have no financial incentive to make Call of Duty and other Activision content exclusive to Xbox. This is a point that Microsoft itself has been making, saying it makes no business sense to take Call of Duty off PlayStation.