Activision merger may 'seriously harm competition,' multiple companies tell CMA

Multiple video games companies told UK regulators at the CMA that the Microsoft-Activision combination could 'seriously harm competition' in the industry.

Sony wasn't the only video games company opposed to Microsoft buying Activision and snapping up multiple billion-dollar franchises.

Sony has been the loudest opponent of Microsoft's proposed buyout of Activision-Blizzard, but new reports from the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) show that Sony wasn't the only group to have concerns. We've documented the power of Activision's size in both earnings and reach and how big Xbox would grow overnight through the combination, and while our data is compelling, it's a small fraction of what competitors and regulators have seen. The CMA, for example, says they've analyzed over 3 million documents relating to both businesses.

According to the CMA's recent decision to block the Microsoft-Activision merger, multiple anonymous games companies believed that Xbox and Activision teaming up could "seriously harm competition." It's public knowledge that Sony is against the merger and it is believed that Google may have raised questions around Xbox's cloud gaming plans, but there's no concrete source information as to who the other naysayers were.

"The views of third parties were mixed. Some major gaming businesses considered that the merger would seriously harm competition and that the behavioral remedy proposed by Microsoft was ineffective, inadequate, and/or would distort the market," the CMA wrote in its overview filing.

The regulators say they have sent out more than 90 requests for information from third-parties, and that they have conducted in-depth talks with key executives and higher-ups in the games industry.

We may never know which companies had concerns on the merger, and rightly so because that kind of information could affect future partnerships and business deals.