The Competition & Markets Authority (CMA), UK, has denied the proposed acquisition of Activision-Blizzard by Microsoft Inc. as it raised competitive concerns in cloud gaming market in the UK. Microsoft committed to offer royalty-free access to CoD & other popular titles to certain cloud gaming providers & allowing consumers to stream titles on other cloud gaming providers. However, CMA noted that the remedy applies only to a defined set of Activision games, which can be streamed only in a defined set of cloud gaming services; thus requiring some degree of regulatory oversight by CMA. By contrast, preventing the merger would effectively allow market forces to continue to operate and develop cloud gaming without any regulatory intervention.
