CMA blocks MS /ABK merger (Update: UK gov smears the CMA)

[Shadow1980]

SvennoJ said:

Shadow1980 said:

Always good to see any sort of major corporate merger blocked, but I'm kinda surprised the CMA's argument was based on cloud gaming and not something like the potential for monopolizing Call of Duty, which is basically like 90% of A-B's business on the console side. I don't really keep up with cloud-based gaming so I'm not too familiar with it, but what does Activision have to do with cloud gaming?

Not much yet, but King is part of the deal and they do own a little game called Candy Crush. MS has xCloud and wants to open a mobile store and get xCloud onto your phone (and TV). CoD as one of the most popular games is the perfect Trojan Horse to get gamepass onto mobile. King has the connections and experience in the mobile world MS wants to get into. CoD mobile already exists, but the dream of course is to have one CoD to rule them all. A unified (like bedrock) CoD for everyone, play on your phone on the way back from work, then continue on TV at home.

5g is good enough for mobile phone cloud gaming. Not good enough for pro players / those frequenting game sites, but plenty for the masses. Cloud gaming is forecasted to grow 42% yoy to 2030 while console gaming revenue is pretty much flat nowadays. With 6.92 billion smart phones in the world, that's too big of a blue ocean to ignore. Mobile gaming is where the growth is and already generates twice the revenue of console gaming.

MS isn't spending 69 billion to slightly increase their slice in the stagnant console/pc game revenues. They're spending it to change the way we play (and not own) games. It's about getting rid of the 'box' as a hurdle and turn gaming into another guaranteed cash cow like office 365.

Ah. So it was more about the mobile side of things. Thanks for explaining.