Microsoft's landmark acquisition of Activision Blizzard has hit another snag. The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) recently published its provisional conclusion to its investigation into the deal and it does look good.
The UK CMA launched an in-depth investigation into the proposed acquisition five months ago alongside the EU Commission. In its report, the UK antitrust watchdog found that the deal could reduce competition and "result in all gamers seeing higher prices, reduced range, lower quality, and worse service in gaming consoles over time."
The UK CMA also says Microsoft could weaken competition by making Call of Duty and other Activision franchises exclusive to console and cloud gaming services.
"The CMA provisionally found that a small number of key games, including Call of Duty (CoD), Activision's flagship game, play an important role in driving competition between consoles," the UK CMA said. The evidence available to the CMA, including data on how Microsoft measures the value of customers in the ordinary course of business, currently indicates that Microsoft would find it commercially beneficial to make Activision's games exclusive to its own consoles (or only available on PlayStation under materially worse conditions).