The CMA announced that the public survey, which allowed people to email and submit their opinions, both positive and negative, came out surprising results.
According to the CMA, it was only three quarters worth of time for the acquisition and a strong argument for the merger was a large deal.
The public should reply to the ACM’s opinion by October 28, 2022, and a deadline of October 28, 2022. In that time, we received over 2.100 emails.
Of the 2,100 email’s we reviewed, about three quarters were broadly in favour of the merger and one quarter in favour of that merger. A small number of respondents remained skeptical of the merger.
The following opinions have been put forth in favour of the merger.
a) Sony and Nintendo are stronger than Microsoft in console games and the merger will help Microsoft to compete more closely with them.
(b) the merger won’t harm the competitive consoles, as Microsoft has sworn to keep Activision content, including Call of Duty, unexempt. Microsofts commercial strategy is not to give games an exclusive option; but it can’t give anyone access to Minecraft on competing consoles.
(c) It’s unlikely that Microsoft would make Call of Duty exclusive because of its multiplayer nature. An Xbox without Call of Duty would only find a niche in the market to fill up a cross-platform shooter game;
d) Call of Duty has been playing a number of other games such as Battlefield (Electronic Arts), Grand Theft Auto (Take Two) and FIFA (Electronic Arts).
e) the merger will force Sony to innovate, such as B. by improving its subscription service or developing more games that compete with Call of Duty.
The merger, based on the company’s economic model for the PlayStation brand, has historically been to secure exclusive content or, instead, early access to popular cross-platform game series such as Final Fantasy and Silent Hill;
g) Microsoft plans on adding Call of Duty in Game Pass are pro-competitive and will lower the price of gaming that consumers aspire to access.
For instance, Microsoft didn’t give Activisions content to Xbox after the merger, because it would lose significant potential revenue in competing platforms.
(i) consumers can return to buy-to-play games on an impulse basis if Microsoft had to increase the post-merger price of Game Pass;
j) the merger will give the industry more funding and better quality game facilities.
(k) the merger will allow Microsoft to give Activision better guidance and leadership and encourage it to invest more in other types of games than Call of Duty;
The merger advances its competitive advantages, which creates new options for mobile gamers and allows Microsoft to compete with Google and Apple, both dominant mobile platforms.
If the merger doesn’t raise competition concerns in services like cloud gaming, there are other potential competitors such as Netflix.
Many industry participants stated that they don’t oppose the merger.
There have been several people opposing the merger:
(a) Microsoft has already a dominant position in PC operating systems, so this merger will attempt to achieve such a good position in gaming.
Microsoft has the resources to create an offer to compete with PlayStation Exclusives without acquiring Activision;
c) the merger would lead to a unified effect, and thus set a damaging precedent for the games industry to acquire big publishers instead of fostering organic growth;
d) This would be the largest merger in the history of the games industry and pave the way for a series of future acquisitions of publishers like Take Two, EA, Ubisoft and increase its focus on the market.
(e) Microsoft is going to release Call of Duty exclusive for Xbox, the same as Bethesda, the same time that it had when its acquisition of ZeniMax Media;
f) Microsoft will have the incentive to make Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox post-merger. This will adversely affect people who can’t afford a console and who are now switching to Xbox during the next generation of consoles.
g) Microsoft could degrade the quality of call of duty games on PlayStation post-merger, so consumers could switch to Xbox;
h) after the purchase, Microsoft can capture the multi-game subscription market because it can afford to keep a game in Game Pass for a short time;
(i) Microsoft have already had a dominant position in cloud gaming, and the merger could have an impact on the future of new entrants in this world;
j) the merger will open doors for small studios and independent developers and create barriers; and j) will build up barriers to entry for smaller companies and developer developers; and j) will build up a small team and allow us to expand our company’s production capacity.
The merger would increase Microsoft’s bargaining power in relation to game makers.
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