The EU opens an investigation into the purchase of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft

The European Commission -executive arm of the European Union- announced on Tuesday the opening of an “in-depth” investigation of the proposed purchase of Activision Blizzard by Microsoftdue to the possible effects on competition in the video game segment.

In a statement, the Commission said it was “concerned that, by acquiring Activision Blizzard, Microsoft could close access to consoles and video games for personal computers” developed by that firm, such as the highly popular “Call of Duty”.

“The Commission is concerned that the proposed acquisition may reduce competition in the markets for the distribution of consoles and games for personal computers and for computer operating systems,” the statement said.

According to the European Commission, a preliminary investigation shows that the transaction “may significantly reduce competition in the video game distribution markets for consoles and PCs, including game subscription services and/or cloud game streaming services.” .

On September 15, the UK competition watchdog announced Thursday an investigation into Microsoft’s purchase of US video game publisher Activision Blizzard, concerned about its impact on the UK market.

This same Tuesday, Activision Blizzard reported a drop in sales for the fourth consecutive quarter, although it assured that the latest edition of “Call of Duty” had broken records.

The group saw its revenue decline in the third quarter by 14%, with significant declines in the console and PC gaming segment.

Microsoft had announced in January its intention to acquire Activision Blizzard, a firm that apart from “Call of Duty” developed other extremely popular games such as “World of Warcraft” o “Candy Crush“.

The cost of the operation would amount to about 69,000 million dollars.

Microsoft has already announced that it did not intend to make “Call of Duty” an exclusive offering of its own gaming platform, Xbox.

The acquisition, which is expected to close next year, will create the third largest player in the video game sector by revenue, behind the Chinese company Tencent and the Japanese Sonymanufacturer of PlayStation.