The ongoing saga of Microsoft’s attempted acquisition of Activision-Blizzard (ATVI) continues to trudge along, hitting a significant milestone this past week with a hearing in front of EU regulators in-regards to the deal. Here’s a quick breakdown of a few of the major points that stood out:
Nintendo: While Sony (and apparently the FTC) would like the regulatory bodies of the world to forget that Nintendo exists, Microsoft (MSFT) decided to play into that definition by providing a pie chart of the EU console market share without Nintendo to the tune of 80% owned by Sony; 20% owned by Microsoft. While this greatly heightened the argument for more competition needed in EU, Microsoft also decided to invite Nintendo into the mix by signing a “binding 10-year legal agreement to bring future Call of Duty titles to Nintendo players the same day as Xbox, with full feature and content parity”, if/when the acquisition of ATVI goes through. MSFT went on to state that they are “committed to providing long term equal access to Call of Duty.”
NVIDIA: NVIDIA entered the day aligned with Sony against the deal and ended the day in a new 10-year agreement with Microsoft, praising the deal. In a statement on Twitter, Head of Xbox Phil Spencer noted, “we have signed a 10 year agreement with NVIDIA that will allow GeForce NOW players to stream Xbox PC games as well as Activision Blizzard PC titles, including CoD, following the acquisition.” He continued to drive home MSFT’s main statement that was echoed throughout the court proceedings stating, “we’re committed to bringing more games to more people – however they choose to play.”
While this hearing was a significant step forward for the potential approval or denial of the deal, there is still quite a ways to go. The EU Commission will report back on their findings and the impact of the hearing when they reveal their decision, currently scheduled for April 11th, 2023.
Image from: IGN
