Even if Call of Duty is largely played on console, it is less popular in the EEA than in other regions of the world, and is less popular in the EEA within its genre compared to other markets. The Commission goes on to say, “Even if Microsoft did decide to withdraw Activision’s games from the PlayStation, this would not significantly harm competition in the consoles market. Microsoft then proceeded to make a lot of Zenimax’s games exclusive to console and PC, such as the upcoming Starfield and the recently released disaster that was Redfall. Interestingly, the European Commission said something similar when it investigated Microsoft’s acquisition of Zenimax. Indeed, Microsoft would have strong incentives to continue distributing Activision’s games via a device as popular as Sony’s PlayStation.” In regard to the concern of Microsoft making Activision-Blizzard games exclusive to its own platforms, the European Commission states that “Microsoft would have no incentive to refuse to distribute Activision’s games to Sony, which is the leading distributor of console games worldwide, including in the European Economic Area (‘EEA’) where there are four Sony PlayStation consoles for every Microsoft Xbox console bought by gamers. This will apply globally and will empower millions of consumers worldwide to play these games on any device they choose.- Brad Smith The European Commission has required Microsoft to license popular Activision Blizzard games automatically to competing cloud gaming services. This will apply globally and will empower millions of consumers worldwide to play these games on any device they choose.” Brad Smith, headed over to Twitter and said, “The European Commission has required Microsoft to license popular Activision Blizzard games automatically to competing cloud gaming services. Vice Chair and President of Microsoft, Mr. That’s a rather vague choice of words, though, because by default a streamed game is of lesser quality due to compression, input lag and so on. Second, Microsoft will provide a free license to cloud streaming services to people in the EEA in order to play any Activision-Blizzard titles.Īccording to the European Commission, both commitments also come with a promise that streamed games will be of the same quality and content as traditionally downloaded games. As a result, Microsoft has made some concessions, both of which will be in effect for the next decade.įirst, Microsoft will offer a free license that will enable anyone within the European Economic Area (EEA) to stream any Activision-Blizzard game they already have a license for on any streaming platform they choose. The European Commission partly agrees with its UK peers, though, admitting in their findings that the deal will hurt the nascent streaming market. The European Commission has given Microsoft the greenlight for its planned acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, acting as a ray of sunshine for the tech giant after the UK’s CMA blocked the purchase on the grounds that Microsoft would become too dominant in the video game streaming space.
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