Google is not too happy about Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Politico reports. Although Google is not the most popular player in the gaming market at the moment, the company is also very interested in the gaming industry.
Google believes that Microsoft is deliberately degrading the quality of its Game Pass subscription service on ChromeOS devices, and with the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Google fears that the games on its ChromeOS platform will suffer.
Google has previously decided to abandon its cloud gaming platform, Stadia, which is Google’s biggest current attempt to enter the gaming market.
Google’s main argument revolves around its method of playing games via XGP/PGP on Google’s ChromeOS system, which Google says Microsoft has intentionally slowed down. This is an interesting argument, because Microsoft is also actively deploying its cloud gaming service at this stage, and Xbox cloud gaming already supports Linux and ChromeOS devices.
At present, Activision Blizzard’s transaction case has been investigated by regulators in 8 different countries around the world. With Google now also coming forward to voice its own concerns about the acquisition, it might be interesting to see where this goes in the long run.
