The Microsoft bought Activision-Blizzard It has become a topic with considerable impact, as few doubt that it will mark a very important change in the video game industry. In fact, this absorption has set off alarms at Sony, which is maneuvering to prevent its consumption.

Now the buying operation is in the hands of antitrust regulators. On the one hand, Sony seems to have the better of it, at least for now, in the United States, where the FTC has filed suit to prevent the acquisition from going through, and in the United Kingdom, where a Phase 1 investigation by the CMA has raised serious doubts about the suitability of the takeover. For its part, the European Union is analyzing the procurement process. Of these three institutions, of course, the only one that seems to have a firm stance so far is the FTC, while the other two have left the door open to possible approval.

On the other hand, there is also regulators who have given their approval to Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, including the Microsoft companies Brazil, Serbia, Saudi Arabia and most recently Chilewhich, through the Office of the National Economic Prosecutor (FNE), argued the following:

“FNE has approved in Phase 1 the merger operation of the acquisition of control of Activision-Blizzard, Inc (ABK) by Microsoft Corporation (Microsoft), after ruling out that it could materially lessen competition.”

“These companies carry out activities in the same segments: development, publishing and distribution of video games; and at different levels, with Microsoft making the Xbox console and other video game platforms such as GamePass, so their activities overlap both horizontally and vertically.”

“The prosecution believed that the operation was not suitable to substantially restrict competition, taking into account, among other things, the patterns and preferences of video game consumers in Chile..”

“The vertical risk assessment ruled out possible entry blocking, whereby Microsoft would stop providing games like Call of Duty to its competitors following the acquisition of ABK. This, inter alia, considering that ABK faces competitive pressure from players such as Electronic Arts, Take Two, Ubisoft and Epic Games, Sony and Nintendo, and that the relevance of Call of Duty would be relatively less in Latin America than in other areas of the world“.

In short, the conclusions of the FNE are essentially the opposite of those of the UK CMA and focused on the situation in Chile. He also said that Call of Duty isn’t as hot in Latin America as it is in other parts of the world, so he doesn’t see a big loss in terms of competition.

Microsoft expects to be able to complete the acquisition process during the first half of the year, which we launch tomorrow. The Redmond giant has the support of the public, which overwhelmingly approves of the operation, in addition to the antitrust authorities of Brazil, Serbia, Saudi Arabia and Chile. However, the biggest stumbling blocks seem to be the FTC, which has already decided to try to disable the operation, and the UK’s CMA, which, if it decides to veto the operation, could leave it in a deadlock, just as it did. when NVIDIA tried to take over ARM.