At the beginning of the year, the mega takeover was announced: The software giant Microsoft takes over the major video game provider Activision Blizzard. Almost $ 70 billion Microsoft wants to pay for Activision Blizzard – and thus pay a significant premium. Currently, the Activision Blizzard share is listed on the NASDAQ at 80.91 U.S. dollars (as of the closing price on August 10, 2022), while Microsoft offers 95 U.S. dollars per share

Approval by competition authorities

Microsoft expects to complete the deal by the end of its next fiscal year, which ends in mid-2023, but before that, the IT group’s acquisition must be approved by competition authorities in many countries. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority issued a statement in early July saying it was investigating the deal, according to Rock Paper Shotgun, with a provisional deadline for further investigation set for early September. To get approval for the acquisition, Microsoft is now taking an interesting approach.

Activision Blizzard’s games have “nothing unique” about them

In a filing, the company told the New Zealand Commerce Commission the merged company will have “neither the ability nor the incentive to prevent competing console and PC video game retailers from accessing content that enables them to compete with respect to game distribution,” writing further: “With respect to Activision Blizzard video games in particular, there is nothing unique about the video games developed and published by Activision Blizzard that is a ‘must have’ for competing PC and console video game distributors that gives rise to foreclosure concerns.”

In a filing with Brazilian regulators, videogameschronicle.com reports, Sony, on the other hand, called Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty game “an indispensable game” and a “AAA title that has no rival.” The Microsoft competitor had argued that the franchise is so popular that it even influences users’ choice of console and “its community of loyal users” is so ingrained “that even if a competitor had the budget to develop a similar product, it wouldn’t be able to compete with it.”

Microsoft’s argument also seems somewhat dubious, considering that the company is willing to pay nearly $70 billion for Activision Blizzard, whose games are said to have nothing unique about them. As Rock Paper Shotgun reported, citing a company conference call last year, Activision Blizzard has taken in about $27 billion from Call of Duty alone since its debut in 2003. COO Daniel Alegre had at the time called Call Of Duty “one of the most successful entertainment franchises of all time.”

Games should remain available on other platforms

In the document Microsoft filed with the New Zealand Trade Commission, the company also clarifies that Activision Blizzard’s games will remain available on other platforms, not just its own Xbox platform, after the acquisition. “Microsoft has demonstrated that it is not withdrawing content from other platforms, having made several public statements that it will make Call of Duty and other popular Activision Blizzard titles available on PlayStation during the term of any existing agreement and beyond. Microsoft has also publicly stated that it is interested in taking similar steps to support the Nintendo platform,” the company said.

According to Rock Paper Shotgun, this is already confirmed by the upcoming re-release of the Call Of Duty series on Steam with Modern Warfare 2 in October.