Phil Spencer, the head of Microsoft’s Xbox gaming division, commented on its plan to acquire Activision Blizzard, saying he believed the scrutiny from regulators was “fair”. ” and “substantiated.”
The acquisition is currently under scrutiny by regulators around the world. The U.K.’s CMA has significantly expanded its investigation into Microsoft due to Sony’s persuasion, expressing concerns that the deal could hurt PlayStation and other game subscription services. Of course, Microsoft also denies this.
The CMA has now officially moved its investigation into a second phase, while the European competition watchdog has also set its own interim deadline of November 8 to either approve the deal or opt into phase two, the FTC is expected. A ruling will be made in late November.
Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox, said on this week’s Wall Street Journal tech live event that he believes scrutiny of the major deal is warranted, revealing that he has been meeting regularly with regulators around the world.
“It might surprise people, but I’m not an expert on doing $70 billion deals,” “but I do also understand that we’d very much like to get approvals in key jurisdictions, and I’m at the FTC in Brussels, London and the U.S. It took a lot of time” “I would say the discussions were very fair and honest. There is no doubt that this is a big acquisition. Microsoft is a big tech company and plays a big role in the tech industry. I think the regulator’s Discussions around the acquisition of this size make sense, and I appreciate their willingness to take the time to investigate.”
He added: “We’re really working on getting the deal approved – I’m very confident about that. I was in London just last week and I’m continuing discussions with all the regulatory committees and I’m confident the deal will be approved.”
Much of the current regulatory and gaming industry discussion surrounding the Activision Blizzard acquisition is centered on the Call of Duty franchise. Despite repeated assurances from Xbox that the series will continue to debut on PlayStation, Sony has repeatedly voiced its concerns by launching a war of words. Jim Ryan told the media: Microsoft’s offer for a future Call of Duty is “inadequate on many levels.”
Britain’s CMA expressed similar concerns, saying the deal could hurt PlayStation and other game subscription services if Microsoft made Call of Duty an exclusive on its own platform.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Spencer reiterated Microsoft’s stance that Microsoft will continue to release CoD on the PlayStation platform for the foreseeable future. For the gaming business, the company is more interested in the impact of the Activision Blizzard acquisition on its mobile growth, he said.
“What really interests us about Activision Blizzard, King, is the work their teams have done to create such a huge mobile fan base,” he said.
“The game will continue to be released on PlayStation – our plan is not to lure and divert users to play in the cloud, or take it off the game in two to three years. Our goal is that, as long as it works, we will Continue to release Call of Duty on the PlayStation platform – technology is always in transition in some form.”
Phil Spencer said that Call of Duty was so successful because it could be played on his company’s Xbox, as well as Sony’s PlayStation 5 and PC, and he also hinted that the game would be coming to Nintendo’s Switch in the future Handheld.
Spencer said: “Call of Duty will be available on PlayStation, I’d love to play it on Switch, I’d love to see it play on many different screens, our intention is Think of Call of Duty as Minecraft.”
