UK CMA pulls off from investigating Call of Duty's exclusivity rights in Microsoft acquisition, final report date revealed

In a recent report, the UK CMA revealed that they're no longer concerned with Call of Duty's exclusivity rights in Microsoft's acquisition of Activision. Although this has been a hot topic in the gaming community for a few months, the latest report has finally shed some light on the situation that has kept everyone on the edge of their seats over the last few months.

With the UK's Competition and Markets Authority investigating the merger for quite some time now, there have been a number of accusations from both Sony and Microsoft. The latest report has revealed that the governing authority will now focus on the cloud gaming market and how it will be affected by this deal. The final decision from the department is set to be revealed on April 26, 2023. This article will detail the contents of the latest report and the authority's provisional conclusion.

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UK CMA will continue their investigation on cloud gaming service instead of Call of Duty's exclusivity in Microsoft deal

With Activision's acquisition awaiting approval for the deal to go through, there have been a number of controversies that have been brought to light. Sony has primarily been accusing Microsoft of creating a negative impact on the market. According to the industry giant, the upcoming deal could potentially create a monopoly in the gaming market if Microsoft gets exclusive rights to the Call of Duty franchise.

With Microsoft repeatedly denying this claim from the start, the latest report by the UK CMA has provisionally revealed that the merger won't cause a "substantial lessening of competition in console gaming services."

Addressing the Call of Duty topic, Martin Coleman, the chair of the independent panel of experts, stated:

"Having considered the additional evidence provided, we have now provisionally concluded that the merger will not result in a substantial lessening of competition in console gaming services because the cost to Microsoft of withholding Call of Duty from PlayStation would outweigh any gains from taking such action."

The CMA report further revealed that they will continue their investigations until there's a clear result regarding the deal's potential to affect the cloud gaming service in the near future.

This is everything that has been revealed in the latest report by the UK CMA. Based on the information at hand, there will likely be more news arriving sometime next month. Interested readers must keep an eye on Sportskeeda to get the latest coverage of Microsoft's deal, the future of the Call of Duty series, and more.