{"id":1920061,"date":"2023-04-27T10:26:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T14:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/cloud-not-consoles-blocks-microsofts-activision-view-in-uk\/"},"modified":"2023-04-27T10:30:24","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T14:30:24","slug":"cloud-not-consoles-blocks-microsofts-activision-view-in-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/cloud-not-consoles-blocks-microsofts-activision-view-in-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"Cloud, not consoles, blocks Microsoft\u2019s Activision view in UK"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcloud-not-consoles-blocks-microsofts-activision-view-in-uk%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1920061&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"entry-content\">\n<h2>Cloud, Not Consoles, Blocks Microsoft&#8217;s Record Activision Blizzard Takeover<\/h2>\n<p>By Paul Sandle<\/p>\n<p>LONDON (Reuters) \u2013 For all the thunder about Xbox versus PlayStation, it was the nascent cloud market that led to Britain\u2019s surprise decision to block Microsoft\u2019s record Activision Blizzard takeover.<\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1663871513696-art-1\" style=\"min-width: 320px; min-height: 50px; text-align: center;\">\n        <script>\n          googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1663871513696-art-1'); });\n        <\/script>\n      <\/div>\n<p>Microsoft has been working for months to satisfy concerns about the $69 billion deal raised by Britain\u2019s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which has been increasingly proactive in taking on \u201cBig Tech\u201d since Brexit.<\/p>\n<p>The ruling \u2013 which the U.S. company has vowed to appeal \u2013 sets a precedent for the European Commission \u2013 due to issue its own verdict next month, and the U.S Federal trade Commission.<\/p>\n<p>Microsoft offered Sony a 10-year guarantee that new versions of \u201cCall of Duty\u201d \u2013 one of the most valuable franchises in gaming \u2013 would be available on PlayStation at the same time as on Xbox. Nintendo secured a similar deal.<\/p>\n<p>That only answered the CMA\u2019s console concerns, leaving cloud gaming as the only remaining \u2013 and apparently lower \u2013 hurdle.<\/p>\n<h3>The Rise of Cloud Gaming<\/h3>\n<p>Defining cloud gaming is not simple. Platform types and business models are still evolving, and several \u2018gaming as a platform\u2019 services have struggled to succeed, such as Google Stadia, according to a submission to the CMA\u2019s inquiry by UCL School of Management\u2019s Joost Rietveld.<\/p>\n<p>Activision has not made its titles available on cloud services, calling them a \u201ctransient technology\u201d, while Microsoft, which offers the Xbox Game Pass service, has said cloud gaming is \u201cno more than a feature\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The CMA disagreed, saying that cloud was the most rapidly growing sector in gaming, while consoles were a mature market.<\/p>\n<p>It said Microsoft already accounted for 60-70% of global cloud gaming services and had other trump cards: Xbox, the leading PC operating system Windows and cloud provider Azure.<\/p>\n<p>Microsoft agreed to offer some Activision games on a number of cloud platforms, including Nvidia, Boosteroid and Ubitus.<\/p>\n<p>But the CMA said Microsoft\u2019s remedies omitted rival subscription models \u2013 like a Netflix for games \u2013 or providers not using Windows on PCs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c(Microsoft\u2019s) proposals were not effective to remedy our concerns and would have replaced competition with ineffective regulation in a new and dynamic market,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n<p>Quilter Cheviot equity research analyst Ben Barringer said: \u201cEver since Brexit, the UK regulator has taken an actively harsh stance when it comes to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/exclusive-french-court-cuts-antitrust-fine-against-apple-to-372-million-euros-from-1-1-billion-source\/\" title=\"Exclusive-French court cuts antitrust fine against Apple to 372 million euros from 1.1 billion- source\">anti-competitive behaviour<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis stance is ultimately what has led to its decision to put a halt to the purchase, as it concluded that Microsoft already has a dominant position and \u2018cloud gaming needs a free, competitive market to drive innovation and choice\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Paul Sandle LONDON (Reuters) \u2013 For all the thunder about Xbox versus PlayStation, it was the nascent cloud market that led to Britain\u2019s surprise decision to block Microsoft\u2019s record Activision Blizzard takeover. Microsoft has been working for months to satisfy concerns about the $69 billion deal raised by Britain\u2019s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":1920062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[542],"tags":[6946,6183,10465,22026,6948,5963],"class_list":["post-1920061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oann","tag-activision","tag-blocks","tag-cloud","tag-consoles","tag-microsofts","tag-view"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1920061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1920062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1920061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1920061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1920061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}