Microsoft's latest filing with the UK's Competition & Markets Authority was published this week with the company responding to a few more of the CMA's concerns. One such concern the CMA laid out was the potential for Microsoft to raise Game Pass pricing following the Activision Blizzard acquisition, but Microsoft says it has no plans to raise prices anytime soon. 

In an earlier filing, the CMA expressed concern that Activision Blizzard joining Microsoft would lead to an increase in Game Pass subscription prices. In its response, Microsoft says that prices will “not increase as a result of the merger, and certainly will not increase to a point that offsets the substantial benefits of Activision titles coming to Game Pass on a day and date basis”.

Microsoft expands on this by saying that the merger will allow Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard games at opportunity cost and the company will have the incentive to distribute these games more broadly to increase the output of Game Pass.

The company argues that this effect has already been demonstrated by its acquisition of Zenimax Media and Bethesda. That merger did not result in price increases for Game Pass subscribers. Beyond that, Microsoft says that increasing Game Pass prices could cause a higher number of subscribers to cancel their subscriptions after a small amount of time.

The CMA and European Commission are due to make their final decisions on the merger in late April.

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KitGuru Says: Game Pass prices likely will increase at some point, but Microsoft is still in the growth phase, so I wouldn't expect something like that to happen in the immediate aftermath of the Activision Blizzard merger if it does go through. 

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