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

CTOnews.com, March 9 (Xinhua) in order to win British regulatory support for its merger with Activision Blizzard, Microsoft recently published full-page advertisements in several British newspapers, emphasizing its commitment to the game market and players.

According to The Verge reporter Tom Warren, the ad appeared in newspapers such as the Financial Times and the Daily Mail this week.

Microsoft said in the ad that if the $69 billion deal goes through, Xbox will be able to offer the call of Duty series to another 150 million players. This is because Microsoft has previously promised to bring the series of games to Nintendo Switch and GeForce Now, which have nearly 125 million and 25 million users, respectively.

However, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said last month that it initially believed that Microsoft's deal with Activision Blizzard could reduce competition and "lead to higher game prices, fewer player choices and less innovation". The agency believes that the easiest way to ensure that competition does not decline significantly is to block the deal altogether or to partially divest Activision Blizzard and sell some of its businesses, such as call of Duty.

However, CMA also said it would consider behavioral remedies, such as Microsoft's promise to release call of Duty on other platforms after the merger. However, CMA believes that behavioural remedies are preferable to structural remedies, which, once implemented, rarely require monitoring and enforcement. CMA fears that if the deal is approved, Microsoft may use a series of measures to stifle competition. These measures include not providing games or content to competitors such as Sony and reducing the quality of Activision Blizzard games on the PlayStation platform.

Sony also opposed the deal in its response on Wednesday, arguing that behavioural remedies would not solve the problems raised by regulators because "there are countless ways for Microsoft to restrict or reduce access to [other platforms]". And "very difficult to monitor and manage". Sony says one way Microsoft can evade its obligations is to release a quality-defective call of Duty game for PlayStation.

CTOnews.com reported earlier today that Microsoft said it had offered Sony a 10-year, enforceable contract for every new call of Duty game to be launched on PlayStation on the same day as Xbox, with identical content and functionality.

Microsoft also rejected suggestions that adding popular Activision Blizzard content to its subscription service after the merger could increase Xbox Game Pass prices, and said it was willing to pay a third party to monitor its compliance with any agreed behavioral remedies.

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