UK competition regulator wants to know what you think about the Microsoft Activision deal

If you have an opinion about by microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzardthe UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) wants to hear from you.

That’s right, if you’ve been thinking, ‘My God, I wish I had a way to explain why large-scale consolidation is good or bad,’ then today is your lucky day. The CMA has entered Phase 2 of its investigation of the deal, in which it is trying to determine whether the acquisition will “reduce competition.” So now he wants to hear the public’s thoughts on the matter.

As reported by GamesIndustry.bizthe CMA has published its problem statementwhich goes over the details of Phase 2, where he discusses some of his concerns, such as the effect the deal could have on things like cloud gaming and Activision titles not appearing on other consoles or multi-game subscription services. .

Now that the Issue Statement has been published, the CMA has said that, “At this point, we invite anyone, including members of the public, to share their views with us,” which they are welcome to do. here. The CMA will continue to collect evidence related to the investigation before producing a final report. It is also set a deadline of March 1 to rule on the investigation, so it won’t be long before we know the results.

It is noted that “due to the anticipated volume of mailings”, the CMA “may not be able to individually recognize and respond to your email”, so don’t flatter yourself if you’re desperately excited about having your contributions to all of this status officially recognized in some way.

Whether or not the deal will have a big impact on rivals like Sony is unclear and probably won’t be until the deal goes through (if it does), but according to Xbox head Phil Spencer the main reason for the acquisition is not actually related to the console market, but due to the opportunities of mobile games, a market that the company has not successfully penetrated.