The billion-dollar takeover of Activision Blizzard King is currently being examined by the authorities. According to Microsoft, however, nobody needs to worry – after all, Xbox is still significantly smaller than its competitors Sony and Tencent.
Microsoft wants to complete the billion-dollar takeover of Activision Blizzard King in fiscal year 2023. However, the deal is still ongoing by the North American agency of the Federal Trade Commission examined with regard to possible market dominance by Microsoft. However, the company itself is reluctant: In the gaming business, Xbox, even with Activision, is still behind Tencent and Sony.
Activision takeover: Microsoft sees no danger of monopoly
In an interview with the Financial Times, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella commented on the acquisition of Activision Blizzard King, emphasizing that the Even with the billion-dollar deal, the Xbox company still has no market monopoly could reach. Rather, Nadella explained that even with the investment, Microsoft would only rank third in the gaming business — and rank further behind Sony and Tencent in terms of revenue.
Nadella said the content creation platform industry is highly fragmented. In this context Microsoft and Xbox would be big parties, but not dangerous because of the market structure – especially since there would be significant restrictions in the area of sales anyway: The largest open distribution platform for gaming is Windows, but the largest store there is Steam. (Source: Financial Times via VGC)
Xbox: No gaming monopoly, but trend is noticeable (comment)
It currently seems unlikely that the Federal Trade Commission will put obstacles in the way of the Activision deal. Nevertheless should Recent dynamics in the industry are not taken lightly will. In January 2022 alone, three billion-dollar takeovers were announced: between Take-Two and Zynga, Microsoft and Activision, and Sony and Bungie.
With regard to these developments, possible regulation of the market at an early stage and proactively to be discussed. After all, it can be assumed that the gaming giants will continue to focus on consolidations and acquisitions in the future – Sony, for example, has already announced that further large deals are to follow.
Therefore have to put these acquisitions in a larger context in which the structure of the gaming market appears to be under threat. Microsoft’s attempt to downplay the impact of the Activision deal falls flat here: if the moment ever comes when the company admits that its next acquisition would secure its market monopoly, it would be too late anyway.
In our video we explain what the Activision acquisition by Microsoft means:
With the Activision takeover, Microsoft is strengthening its position in the gaming industry. But according to CEO Satya Nadella, nobody needs to worry about a monopoly at the moment. Microsoft is still behind Tencent and Sony in the gaming market.