by
William D’Angelo
, posted on 06 October 2022 / 4,570 Views
Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) yesterday voted to approve Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition with no restrictions.
Brazil’s CADE in its report says that even if Activision Blizzard games, including Call of Duty, become exclusive to the Microsoft ecosystem, Sony will still be able to compete. As an example given is that Nintendo is able to compete in the market despite the fact it does not rely on Activision Blizzard games and the Switch has yet to see a Call of Duty game released on it.
“With the acquisition of a publisher such as Activision Blizzard, and considering the (theoretical) risk of the company’s content becoming exclusive to Xbox, it is likely that the eventual conclusion of the Transaction will give Microsoft a considerable competitive advantage in the segment of consoles,” reads the report from Brazil’s CADE.
“Even so, CADE does not see that such an advantage represents a risk of closing this market for current competitors. As already seen, Nintendo does not currently rely on any content from Activision Blizzard to compete in the market.
“In turn, Sony has several attributes – strength of the world’s leading brand for more than 20 years, extensive experience in the sector, largest user base, largest installed base of consoles, robust catalog of exclusive games, partnerships with multiple third-party publishers, brand loyal consumers, etc. – which should contribute to maintaining the competitiveness of PlayStation in a possible post-Operation scenario, even in the face of possible loss of access to Activision Blizzard content.
“Furthermore, it is important to highlight that the central objective of CADE’s activities is the protection of competition as a means of promoting the well-being of the Brazilian consumer, and not the defense of the particular interests of specific competitors.”
The report added, “In this sense, although it is recognized that part of the users of PlayStation consoles (from Sony) could decide to migrate to Xbox in the event that Activision Blizzard games – and especially Call of Duty – become exclusive to the Microsoft ecosystem, CADE does not believe that such a possibility represents, in itself, a risk to competition in the console market as a whole.”
A life-long and avid gamer, William D’Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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