EU gathers rivals’ opinions on Micrsoft-Activision deal – Reuters (NASDAQ:MSFT)

The European Union’s antitrust watchdog is asking recreation builders whether or not Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) may have an incentive to dam rivals’ entry to video games from Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI), Reuters stories.

A key query in Microsoft’s proposed $69B acquisition has been whether or not the Xbox maker would take annual best-sellers corresponding to Activision’s annual Name of Obligation franchise and make them unique to its platforms.

That is the query on the European Fee’s thoughts, Reuters says citing an EC doc.

The enforcer can be asking whether or not Activision’s storehouse of consumer information would give Microsoft a aggressive edge in growing, publishing and distributing video games – notably in the case of bargaining energy with Microsoft’s cloud streaming service Xbox Sport Cross.

it additionally requested which of Microsoft’s rivals can be most tasty following the deal, with decisions together with Nvidia’s GeForce Now (NVDA), Sony’s PlayStation (SONY), Amazon Luna (AMZN), Fb Gaming (META), and Google Stadia (GOOG) (GOOGL) – quickly to be defunct.

The EU’s course of comes forward of a preliminary choice anticipated Nov. 8, after which the EC is anticipated to open a four-month investigation. These receiving the questionnaire have till Oct. 10 to answer.