I'm gonna be honest with you. I have no idea how the CMA went this far. They have been acting like the rulers of the world and for what? What exactly does the CMA (and the UK) win with all this? I'm actually REALLY surprised the UK government let them go this far.

And? That doesnt mean that it is not a megacorporation with a strong influence in LOTS of different businesses and mediums.

MS should just take a few billion and make a deal for COD alone. Day 1 Game Pass, maybe a few months exclusivity every year or something like that. Really the rest of Activision is not worth that much, Starcraft/Warcraft were huge in their hey day, but that's long since passed.

There's nothing a regulator can do about that and it's probably a lot cheaper than spending $70 billion freaking dollars.

By actually owning the IP they make all the profit from it though. By paying for exclusivity etc. they'd probably be losing money. They may gain from console sales/gamepass subscribers, but it'd be impossible to see if they're actually gaining those due to the exclusivity deal so for all intents and purposes it would look like a loss with people just saying "trust me, it isn't".

Owning it they make 100% of the profit from every single sale of the game and every single DLC or microtransaction sale. They're not restricted to the 30% platform holder cut and they're not relying solely on hardwaresubscriptions to make it profitable. It's much easier to benefit from the untrackable metrics when the product is profitable even without them.

Oh, and don't forget Blizzard have Overwatch and Diablo still. They're still absolutely massive IPs that can generate a tonne of money.

Because Sony isn't even worth 200 billion, whilst the above are far above the 1 or even 2 trillion mark in worth. Comparing Sony to Microsoft is comparing New Zealand to USA, based on GDP they are in entirely different ballparks.

https://companiesmarketcap.com/tech/largest-tech-companies-by-revenue/

I should have included Samsung and Foxconn though. But indeed Sony is big enough as well. I definitely do not want Sony to buy up ABK either. (Not that they can spend 69 Billion)

I don't like this deal either, but at the end of the day, even after this purchase Microsoft will still be in 3rd place in the gaming market so the whole "monopoly danger" don't apply in this particular instance, regardless of Microsoft's size. In fact, in can be argued that by protecting the market leader the regulators are actually doing the exact opposite of what they are supposed to do; which is why the CMA dropped the whole console market angle and made up a totally new one "Oh, we believe this might hurt a new market that it doesn't even exist yet".

At this point it has become obvious that the CMA came to this decision because they just wanted to give an example of their power, but they overplayed their hand. At the end of the day, what happens between two japanese companies affects Japan's economy one way or another, what happens between two chinese companies affects China's economy one way or another, and what happens between two US companies affects USA's economy one way or another; there is absolutely no way in hell that all the countries of the world would just sit by and let a third one to call all the shots. As is stands right now, the CMA is actually putting the UK's economy in danger, and for what exactly?

Just because they said "no" to MS buying Activision? People already sign up to GP and buy Xbox products already, they have to use MS due to their monopoly offices across the world, of which they are currently getting in trouble because of Teams with the EU, is EU economy also in trouble? Are MS going to cry about lack of innovation and investment there and it being closed for business?

The only threat to the UK economy is MS crying because the CMA didn't let them buy a video game company, which they can appeal. And prehaps Sunak giving in to them but he's on limited time now. His party's leadership is done.

I have never thought I would live long enough to see prominent leftists on ResetEra and VGC stand up for lobbying, consolidation, tax evasions, circumventing regulations, politicising independent bodies and spreading misinformation just to stand up for poor little big MS, even if it meant championing a right-wing government ambition to deregulate, an ambition that is only fuelled by Big Tech money.

"Putting UK's economy in danger" PUH lease. This has been debunked one too many times. Not even MS believes what they're saying, why do YOU believe it? 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/05/10/microsoft-backs-british-ai-start-up-despite-row/

You just said that all of the other "big bad evil mega corporations" of the world are growing weary of the CMA; how exactly is that not putting the UK's economy in danger?