In order to prove to CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) UK that Activision Blizzard acquisition won’t hurt Sony’s PlayStation, Microsoft conducted its own survey via YouGov. While we aren’t aware of the specifics of the survey, it revealed that only 3% of the players would switch from PlayStation to Xbox if the Microsoft and Acitivision Blizzard deal goes through.
Microsoft will try to capitalize on this survey to push for the approval from CMA UK. The UK regulatory authority has been quite critical of this acquisition and Microsoft is yet to convince them on this deal. As for FTC in US, they are also not sure if the deal should be allowed or not.
Sony Interactive Entertainment on the other hand, naturally are trying their best to block this deal as they consider loosing Call of Duty to Microsoft as a big loss for PlayStation.
CMA UK also conducted a survey of its own back in December 10, 2022 via DJS Research where they found that around 15% of avid Call of Duty players would switch from PlayStation to Xbox if the deal goes through.
It’s important to note that Microsoft’s survey is only for console users so the survey doesn’t give any idea whether PlayStation players will switch to PC or not. However, UK regulatory authority’s survey revealed that 9% of the avid fans would also switch to PC so that would make a total 24% players lost by Sony PlayStation.
Microsoft has repeatedly said that it does not plan to make Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox. They also offered Sony a few years deal to bring Call of Duty to PlayStation but Sony didn’t accept any of those offers. Microsoft has already a deal in place with Nintendo to bring the Call of Duty games to Nintendo’s consoles for 10 years.
CMA UK is bound to make a decision by April 26 and it will be interesting to see if they approve this deal or not.
