As it tries to persuade European regulators to approve its intended $68.7 billion merger of game publishing giant Activision Blizzard, Microsoft’s Xbox video game division on Tuesday unveiled new agreements with Nintendo and chipmaker Nvidia. You can search more latest tech news so go to premobiles.com.
The European Union antitrust regulators, who met behind closed doors on Tuesday with executives from Microsoft and some of its rivals, including Sony and Google, were a significant audience for the news.
Microsoft and chipmaker Nvidia recently announced a 10-year deal to make Xbox titles available on Nvidia’s cloud gaming platform. Microsoft added that it has now formallyized a commitment it made public late last year by signing a similar agreement with Nintendo.
What it lacks is a deal with Sony, the maker of the PlayStation, the main competitor of Xbox, who has lobbied antitrust authorities worldwide to block the Activision Blizzard merger.
Regulators in the U.S. and Europe are opposed to the all-cash transaction, which is expected to be the biggest in the history of the IT sector since it would give Microsoft ownership over well-known game franchises like Candy Crush, World of Warcraft, and Call of Duty.
The European Commission, the executive arm of the 27-nation EU, has been looking into whether the merger will stifle legitimate competition for well-known Activision Blizzard game franchises. By March 23, a conclusion is expected.
Deal between Microsoft and the California-based game publisher
The deal between Microsoft and the California-based game publisher was first announced in early last year. However, the acquisition has also been stalled in the United States, where the Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit to stop the transaction, and in Britain, where an antitrust watchdog’s provisional report stated that the deal will stifle competition and harm gamers.
Microsoft, a Redmond, Washington-based company, anticipated using clearance from the EU or UK to strengthen its position in the United States and tech news sinhala.
After meeting with regulators on Tuesday, Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, said at a news conference in Brussels that he was “not in a position to say exactly what was said in the hearing room,” but he emphasized that Xbox has a much smaller market share than PlayStation does in Europe and claimed that the merger would benefit the industry by bringing more games to more people.
It has never been about Microsoft spending $69 billion to acquire games like Call of Duty and restrict access to them, according to Smith. That’s not a terrific strategy to create a $69 billion asset that will appreciate in value over time, in my opinion.
