Microsoft and Activision are willing to go to great lengths to defend the ambitious deal announced in January 2022 (yes, it’s been over a year now). The companies have seen how different regulators have tried to stop the completion of the $68.7 billionturning the story into a real soap opera.
After accusing Sony of rejecting his calls, the head of the video game developer, Bobby Kotick, has issued a stark warning. If the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) blocks acquisitions like the one the Redmond giant is trying to conclude, the consequences could be nasty.
From Europe’s Silicon Valley to ‘Death Valley’
Specifically, according to an interview conducted by CNBC, Kotick has indicated that the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, wants to turn the nation into “the Silicon Valley of Europe.” In this sense, he added that if “agreements like this fail to succeed, they will not be Silicon Valley, but Death Valley (the Valley of Death)”. Now, this has not been the only strong statement from him.
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The executive, whose leadership is far from perfect since he has been involved in controversies related to harassment and discrimination, assures that the FTC or the CMA “don’t know the industry”, although they are trying to catch up to understand it better. “I don’t think they realize it’s a free-to-play business, that Japanese and Chinese companies dominate the industry.”
Bobby Kotick, CEO de Activision
During the interview, he did not hesitate to refer to some other players in the sector. For Kotick, one of the strengths of Sony and Nintendo is their intellectual property. While the first has studies of more than 80 years, the second has “the best characters that exist in video games.” Furthermore, he has said that “the best companies in the world right now are companies like Tencent and ByteDance”.
Finally, the Activision boss has recalled how complex it is to operate in certain countries. “We’ve struggled to get into the Japanese market, we can’t get into the Chinese market without a joint venture partner, so the competition is not really European companies, American companies, it’s really those companies in Japan and China.”
In Xataka The soap opera continues: the United Kingdom puts obstacles to the purchase of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft
Let us remember that, in relation to the protected markets, on January 23 about a dozen Blizzard titles were no longer available in China due to the end of a 14 year collaboration between the US company and the local Asian partner. The move has resulted in a loss of millions of players in the region, which translates to millions of dollars less in revenue.
Images: Featured generated with Midjourney (Javier Marquez) | Steven Simko
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The Activision news has a threat to the UK if it blocks purchases like Microsoft’s: the “Valley of Death” was originally published on
xataka
by Javier Marquez.
