Of these six companies, half of them believe that if Microsoft completes its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, it will harm competition. Two companies do not believe it will cause harm, while a third say it is too early to make the call.
AMC explained the six companies as current or potential competitors in “console game services or cloud gaming services”.
One company believes that Call of Duty is the driving factor in the decision to buy a console, and that Call of Duty players are very sensitive to lower quality versions on other devices. They also cite Microsoft’s decision to monopolize Bethesda’s content on the Xbox platform as evidence that the company is likely to do the same here. This mirrors PlayStation’s previous argument.
Some companies note that “multi-game subscription services” are becoming increasingly popular, while some believe that Microsoft has dominated the space.
The majority of companies describe game streaming as a nascent market and its success will depend on issues like latency, bandwidth, and infrastructure. The report states that “some of these third parties expressed confidence that these issues would be resolved and cloud gaming would become a meaningful marketplace, while others described gaming as cloud is technically feasible and an existing market.”
Five of the companies have identified AAA content as a key part of cloud gaming success. Some of these companies have specifically emphasized the importance of Activision content. One company argued that the new cloud gaming service would be difficult without [Activision games].
Finally, the two companies discussed Microsoft’s broader portfolio, including Windows OS, Azure, Xbox and Game Pass, and expressed concern about the competitive impact if its games and studios Activision Blizzard is added to this category.