Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, March 9 (Xinhua)-- Competition and Markets, a British regulator, suspects that if its Activision Blizzard $69 billion merger is approved, it may raise the price of Xbox Game Pass.

"subscription prices can be easily modified, and once Microsoft introduces content as popular as Activision, including CoD, it may have an incentive to do so."

In the newly released survey, Microsoft told CMA that it does not intend to raise the price of Game Pass at this time, because doing so would be counterproductive and eventually lead to a decline in the number of subscribers.

"the price of Game Pass will not rise as a result of the merger, and of course the price increase will not be exchanged for the material benefits of Activision's simultaneous release on XGP. This is particularly important given that Game Pass will continue to be restricted by B2P (buyout games)."

Microsoft also pointed out that it had already introduced the popular B Society content into XGP, but did not raise the price. I believe most users who have read the CTOnews.com report know that Microsoft has acquired the ownership of series IP such as "Ancient Scroll", "radiation", "Devastator" and "Shame" after acquiring ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Society B.

The merger of Activision and Microsoft will produce a classic elimination of the double profit margin effect, as Microsoft will be able to acquire these games at (opportunity) cost and have an incentive to distribute them more widely and increase Game Pass output. In order to increase output, Microsoft needs to provide Game Pass at a lower quality-adjusted price.

This is exactly what Microsoft has done in the past by adding content to Game Pass, such as ZeniMax transactions will lead to additional content, but will not lead to an increase in Game Pass subscription prices. Especially considering that Game Pass users are price-sensitive, and the increase in the price of Game Pass will affect all users, especially those who do not attach importance to or do not play COD.

Game Pass subscribers can cancel their subscriptions at any time after playing for a month. Since the CoD game is released once a year, any impact will be short-lived, as players who lose enthusiasm for the new version of COD within a few months will leave because of the higher price.

Therefore, any price increase will be counterproductive, because it will lead to the loss of users. This is completely inconsistent with the interim survey's assessment of the reasons for Microsoft's merger.

Sony has previously argued that if Microsoft and Activision were allowed to merge, their merger would significantly reduce the competitiveness of PlayStation and Xbox and provide Microsoft with the opportunity to raise prices, including console and game prices for Xbox users (including those transferred from PlayStation), increase the price of game passes and reduce innovation and quality.

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.