One report from MLex includes a few interesting extra quotes from Margrethe Vestager (EU competition chief):
- A 10-year commitment to license the developer's games catalog "significantly improves the conditions for the emergence of cloud game streaming."
- Vestager said that"remedies will make [Activision's games] available for millions of consumers" in Europe, regardless of the operating system they use. "We think this is pro-competitive ... We think the remedies will kick-start this market."
- "We end up with a different conclusion based on how we see the nascent cloud streaming market start," she said.
- She said that her competition department officials conducted two market tests and received positive responses from cloud gaming services in the US and the EU, as well as European game developers and EU consumer groups.
- She pushed back at the idea that the "behavioural" remedy accepted might be hard to monitor or enforce. A commitment to license all-comers for free was "very simple" and "not hard to monitor," she argued. Non-compliance would be obvious to anyone seeking a license.
- She said that the difference between behavioural and structural remedies was a "gray zone" in the digital sector. "If you make a free license for 10 years, is that then a partial divestiture? Have you sold the game?"
- Vestager also countered claims by the CMA that accepting the remedy was akin to regulating or tampering with a new and fast-growing market. She claimed it was "future proof," since the games will be available to cloud-streaming services regardless of their computer operating system or business model. It's not "prescribing anything."
Yes, both the CMA and EC agreed on the cloud gaming concerns but I feel like the level of divergence and disagreement is bigger this time.
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