Nvidia and others speak out against CMA’s decision to block Xbox-Activision merger

Earlier this week, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) officially announced its decision to block Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, citing concerns around the future of the cloud gaming market. Now, some of the cloud gaming companies that Microsoft signed deals with are speaking out in favour of the deal. 

The CMA has concluded that while Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard would not harm Sony's position in the console market, the acquisition would have a significant impact on the cloud gaming market – a market that doesn't really account for a meaningful chunk of the gaming market at this point in time and while there has been growth, we are still a long, long way from cloud taking over as the main source of gaming.

Microsoft saw this coming and sought to prevent this outcome by signing 10-year deals to bring Xbox first-party games and Activision Blizzard titles like Call of Duty to rival cloud gaming services. Activision so far has steered clear of supporting cloud gaming, so this change would have been a Microsoft-led one. The deals would have seen Nvidia's GeForce Now, EE, Ubitus and other cloud gaming companies gaining access to titles they otherwise would not get.

Now, some of those cloud gaming providers who were looking forward to offering games like Call of Duty are speaking out against the CMA's decision. Nvidia has the largest following of the bunch and possibly the most successful cloud gaming service in GeForce Now. In a tweet this week, Nvidia stated that it sees Microsoft's acquisition of Activision as “a benefit to cloud gaming” and calls for a “positive resolution” to the situation.

Similarly, cloud gaming provider Boosteroid also tweeted out against the CMA's decision, saying that its position on the issue “is in line” with Microsoft's.

Microsoft and Activision have both separately stated that they are still committed to the deal and will appeal the CMA's decision. Microsoft went as far as to call the CMA's move “bad for Britain” while an Activision spokesperson said that the move shows that the UK is “closed for business”.

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KitGuru Says: The CMA's move to block the deal is a setback but Microsoft hopes to power through. Depending on how long the appeals process takes, the completion of the deal could end up being pushed to 2024. 

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