Sony, in its fears that Xbox will win a bigger in-house studio supremacy against Playstation if an agreement is reached with the FTC about being allowed to buy Activision Blizzard, has gained unlikely allies.
Sources of Bloomberg reports that Google and Nvidia has reached the Federal Trade Commission a little after the FTC officially objected to the ACtivision Blizzard TRansaction in favor of Microsoft and pretty much aligned with the regulators sentiments, Microsoft will gain unfair advantage in the gaming industry.
Interestingly, Nvidia more than competition at all, its concern was about games remaining open after a closure of the transaction and fears that Microsoft will have a “Xbox only” mindset.
I am amazed and baffled that Google even has an interest in this as Stadia, its only gaming industry presence, is slated to be shutted down on January 18th so I don’t get why Google should be concerned at all.
For the side of Nvidia, it is understandable that GeForceNow had gained traction thanks to Stadia’s closure.
Since a few months ago, Sony has been talking to regulators around the world asking them to not allow the transaction to close, after initial talks about the Activision Blizzard interests in Playstation post-transaction were not convenient for them.
Only the United Kingdom and The European Zone are the remaining big markets pending on a final decision, but further scrutiny with signs of rejecting it has been public while elsewhere in the world, mainly Brazil, has no problem with the buyout.
Microsoft reacted to Bloomberg by saying that “[They] are prepared to address – and have been proactively addressing – issues raised by regulators or competitors to ensure the deal closes with confidence”.