The UK CMA's block of Microsoft's Activision deal focuses on the nascent cloud gaming market, confusing analysts as regulators typically focus on mature markets
but that's what tripped up the Activision deal Reuters : UK watchdog defends Microsoft block in face of onslaught from companies Rebekah Valentine / IGN : Microsoft, Activision-Blizzard, and the CMA: So, What's Next? Liam Doolan / Pure Xbox : Nvidia: Xbox's Acquisition Of ActiBlizz Would Be ‘A Benefit To Cloud Gaming’ Jez Corden / Windows Central : Report: Microsoft Gaming lead Phil Spencer comments on the future of Xbox, should the Activision deal fail Ule Lopez / Wccftech : NVIDIA GeForce NOW and Other Cloud Gaming Providers Reject CMA Decision on Activision Blizzard Deal Derek Strickland / TweakTown : FTC responds to Activision CEO, says it ‘absolutely did not collude’ with CMA Eddie Makuch / GameSpot : Activision Blizzard CEO Hits Back At CMA, Says It Is Being “Dogmatic” In Ruling Against Microsoft Merger Financial Times : A profile of Sarah Cardell, the UK CMA's CEO who played a key role in shaping the mergers policy that led to the agency blocking Microsoft's Activision takeover Tweets: @nvidiagfn : GeForce NOW and other cloud gaming providers stand to gain an even deeper catalog of games if Microsoft's acquisition of Activision is completed. We see this as a benefit to cloud gaming and hope for a positive resolution. @boosteroid_main : Boosteroid team and our users disagree with the CMA's decision against Microsoft's purchase of Activision. Our position on this issue is in line with that of Microsoft's president, Brad Smith. We hope for a quick resolution to this question. https://www.nytimes.com/... Ingrid / @ingridlunden : Microsoft/Activision's darkly threatening response to the CMA quashing their deal is the ugly child of US entitlement and the US attitude of swinging for the fences (nothing to lose). The CMA did its job. @idlesloth84_ : According to Kotick, Lina Khan met with CMA head a week ands half ago before the verdict Kotick Well, I was surprised to learn that Lina Khan and the head of the CMA had a meeting a week and a half ago in Washington. You know, legally you're not supposed https://www.cnbc.com/... https://twitter.com/... @gameoverthirty : On day one I said, “The regulators don't understand the video game market and that's going to be a problem.” What you're seeing from people responding to this (now) is the same sentiment. Unfortunately, I called it. https://www.cnbc.com/... Florian Mueller / @fosspatents : Nvidia is right about this. To be fair, Nvidia wanted to acquire semiconductor design company Arm (UK-based, but belonging to Japan's Softbank at the time) and that deal got blocked. There was resistance in various places, not just by the CMA. And that was a UK company unlike ABK https://twitter.com/... Tom Warren / @tomwarren : Nvidia also backing Microsoft on the CMA's decision. Microsoft had signed a 10-year deal with Nvidia to bring Call of Duty and other Activision games to GeForce Now if the deal closed https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/... Derek Strickland / @deeketweak : How is it a good idea to say these kinds of things about regulators when you're trying to get a merger approved? Taken from CNBC interview with $ATVI CEO Bobby Kotick: https://www.cnbc.com/... https://twitter.com/... Charles Fitzgerald / @charlesfitz : Time travel as an antitrust tool https://www.techmeme.com/...
BloombergCecilia D'Anastasio
Context & Ripple Effects
The CMA’s intervention reframed the transaction around control of cloud-distribution rights rather than the established console market. That made access to a major game catalog a market-access question before cloud gaming had become a mature category.
The subsequent coverage shows how consequential that framing became: EU approval followed access commitments, while the UK process ultimately pushed Microsoft toward a sale of Activision cloud-gaming rights to Ubisoft before the CMA approved the reworked transaction.
First-order effects
Microsoft and Activision cannot complete the acquisition in its proposed form in the UK; they must address the CMA’s concern that Microsoft could gain excessive control over cloud access to Activision games.
Cloud-gaming providers become immediate stakeholders in the remedy debate, with NVIDIA and other providers publicly opposing the block despite the CMA’s view that their future competitive position was at risk.
Second-order effects
Divergent regulatory outcomes complicate a single global closing strategy: the EU later approved the deal after access commitments, increasing pressure for a UK-specific solution. The EU’s approval with concessions made the contrast especially visible.
The dispute shifts negotiations toward separable rights remedies rather than broad promises of access, culminating in Microsoft’s Ubisoft cloud-rights divestment and eventual UK approval.
Third-order effects
Cloud-distribution rights can become a distinct merger-control perimeter, even when the underlying consumer market is still developing; future platform acquisitions may face scrutiny over the ability to shape an emerging service layer.
If this approach persists, large content owners and platform operators will need to design deal structures around regional rights allocation and enforceable access terms, not only around ownership of games or devices.
The trend: Merger oversight is moving upstream to contestable digital markets, treating control of content rights and service access as potential gatekeeping power before markets fully mature.
GeForce NOW and other cloud gaming providers stand to gain an even deeper catalog of games if Microsoft's acquisition of Activision is completed. We see this as a benefit to cloud gaming and hope for a positive resolution.
Boosteroid team and our users disagree with the CMA's decision against Microsoft's purchase of Activision. Our position on this issue is in line with that of Microsoft's president, Brad Smith. We hope for a quick resolution to this question. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Microsoft/Activision's darkly threatening response to the CMA quashing their deal is the ugly child of US entitlement and the US attitude of swinging for the fences (nothing to lose). The CMA did its job.
According to Kotick, Lina Khan met with CMA head a week ands half ago before the verdict Kotick Well, I was surprised to learn that Lina Khan and the head of the CMA had a meeting a week and a half ago in Washington. You know, legally you're not supposed https://www.cnbc.com/... …
On day one I said, “The regulators don't understand the video game market and that's going to be a problem.” What you're seeing from people responding to this (now) is the same sentiment. Unfortunately, I called it. https://www.cnbc.com/...
Nvidia is right about this. To be fair, Nvidia wanted to acquire semiconductor design company Arm (UK-based, but belonging to Japan's Softbank at the time) and that deal got blocked. There was resistance in various places, not just by the CMA. And that was a UK company unlike ABK…
Nvidia also backing Microsoft on the CMA's decision. Microsoft had signed a 10-year deal with Nvidia to bring Call of Duty and other Activision games to GeForce Now if the deal closed https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...
How is it a good idea to say these kinds of things about regulators when you're trying to get a merger approved? Taken from CNBC interview with $ATVI CEO Bobby Kotick: https://www.cnbc.com/... https://twitter.com/...
The cloud #gaming market is growing rapidly, with the average number of UK cloud gamers tripling between 2021 and 2022. This growth is expected to continue. 📈 https://twitter.com/...
If Microsoft were to buy Activision, that position would only become stronger, reducing competition in cloud gaming, and affecting how the market develops. 📉
@stephentotilo @michaelpachter Provisional Findings Report, para. 8.66: “we consider that there is a UK market for cloud gaming services, primarily because not every provider is present in the UK and there are price differences between different countries. From a supply-side pers…
1/ This is another example of the UK CMA stating something to make it true, even though it's clearly not. #ActivisionBlizzard has stated they have no incentive to place their games on cloud for a multitude of reasons. They would only do so under MSFT (carrying the burden). https:…
Cloud streaming service Boosteroid Disagrees with the CMA decision to block Microsoft's Activision acquisition. Boosteroid signed a 10 year deal to bring PC Xbox/Actvision games to the platform, if the deal passed. https://twitter.com/...
It appears that multiple video games companies told the CMA that the merger would “seriously harm competition” and that Microsoft's proposed 10-year deals were not sufficient behavioral remedies. https://twitter.com/...
This is really interesting. CMA finds that Activision would eventually bring its games to cloud services given that cloud is seen to be an important growth sector for the industry. https://twitter.com/...
New (analysis): The great majority of people I've talked to today were shocked by the CMA's decision to block the Microsoft/Activision deal. Some questioned whether the CMA “gets” the cloud gaming market they say Microsoft could potentially dominate. https://www.bloomberg.com/...
Analysts were surprised by the CMA's decision, with many saying regulators were comparing apples to oranges re: cloud gaming services. However, the CMA takes a wide view of what cloud gaming is: content, software, data centers, distribution, hardware. https://www.bloomberg.com/..…
It's hilarious how the CMA went from thinking that Microsoft would make all Activision content, especially Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox Cloud Gaming services. They were concerned about availability strictly. Microsoft gives them countless deals guaranteeing that. They say? No.
From the cma report...even they admit that the cloud market is in its infancy and have no solid data....this is going to get obliterated by CAT https://twitter.com/...
📄 The evidence available to the CMA showed that Microsoft would find it commercially beneficial to make #Activision's games exclusive to its own cloud gaming service, making it harder for other platforms to compete.
This here is one way of looking at it. Whatever drove the CMA's decision, it's not based in fact or law. If the appeals court didn't overrule such an outrageous decision, the damage to the UK economy would be enormous. Who wants to be at the mercy of crazy regulatory overreach? h…
i have no opinion on whether this deal should have been blocked or not but using “a potential monopoly in cloud gaming” as a stumbling block is funny who the fuck is cloud gaming??? https://www.bloomberg.com/...
Every last one of these reasons are so weak.. The CMA itself said BYOG cloud gaming services and MGS cloud gaming services were a direct competitor to cloud gaming as part of a multi-game subscription service. CMA has a credibility problem here. This is what they said in Feb http…
The CMA has said that if Microsoft make Activision Blizzard games exclusive to it's cloud platform it will make it difficult for others to compete If the CMA is concerned about exclusives, what are they doing about PlayStation, Nintendo & Xbox exclusives? Just ban exclusives http…
I said back in September that CoD concerns were just noise and that the larger regulator concerns would be Microsoft's leverage of Windows and Azure for game distribution in the future. And here's the CMA today on Microsoft's recent cloud gaming deals: https://twitter.com/... htt…
CMA blocks Microsoft/Activision Blizzard acquisition “over concerns the deal would alter the future of the fast-growing cloud gaming market, leading to reduced innovation and less choice for UK gamers over the years to come.” https://www.gov.uk/... https://twitter.com/...
The UK CMA says that it wants to protect the “growing” cloud market, so why won't it let the major cloud players invest in its growth and viability? https://www.windowscentral.com/ ...
The effect the CMA has on the wider British economy is becoming difficult to ignore. Decisions like this and blocking the FB/Giphy deal will undermine everything else we could try to do to make the UK a centre for tech startups and investment. https://www.gov.uk/...