The regulator fears that the purchase of Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion will damage competition in the gaming market.
For example, the European Commission suggests that Microsoft may restrict access on consoles and PCs to successful games like Call of Duty. Also, the deal can harm subscriptions, cloud services and even PC operating systems. According to officials, gamers can refuse to buy computers not with Windows, if it is impossible to launch publisher titles on those.
The European Commission must make a decision on the deal by March 23, 2023.
Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, in response to the start of a new stage of the investigation, stated that they continue to cooperate with the EU authorities. Microsoft separately stressed that Sony is the leader in the games industry. The corporation also added that, despite all the concerns, it is not going to deprive the PlayStation of the Call of Duty series of games.