Today, the UK CMA has ruled that Sony is liable & will indeed entering in a £5 billion class action lawsuit over #PlayStation Store prices practices, lawsuit filed originally on August 2022 & since then, Sony has been trying to have the case dismissed. Some context: The lawsuit isn't aimed exclusively on consumer (they are at the end of the chain, but instead, Sony has been accused on leveraging unfairly at his favor the fee charged at developers who cannot deploy Playstation games elsewhere and the cost is passed to consumers. #Gaming #GamingNews

https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-tell-if-your-phone-is-being-tapped-what-to-do

The FTC will renew its fight against #ActivisionBlizzard acquisition with in-house trial to try to force a divestiture if merger already took by 21 days after the 9th Circuit of Courts Appeals issue their decision on the Preliminary Injunction denial appeal. While there is a small chance of success in the best case scenario for the FTC, the litigation could take years anyways taking in perspective all the step backs since day one. All this meanwhile, we have to count at the UK CMA to give an approval after the Ubisoft entered an agreement about purchasing ABK's Cloud Gaming rights, entered the picture. Observers sees difficult on how FTC can justify a case were virtually should not use data and steps taken in the Preliminary Injunction hearing, should not try to proxy the CMA's process to favor their arguments & how effective is the spending of taxpayers on a virtual lost case. #Gaming #GamingNews

Reminding you all that I AM NOT A LEGAL/MERGER expert! I partially agree that CMA made Microsoft step a landmine after FTC's fiasco on #ActivisionBlizzard prem-injuction. But then again, CMA STILL is on the fence regardless of this "petty victory" on delaying the inevitable.

Originally slated as a Plan B & now the WHOLE PLAN, Microsoft announced an agreement with #Ubisoft to buy the Cloud Gaming rights of Activision Blizzard to mitigate concerns of its ABK acquisition by the regulator CMA. Under the restructured transaction, Microsoft will not be in a position either to release Activision Blizzard games exclusively on Xbox Cloud Gaming or to exclusively control the licensing terms of Activision Blizzard games for rival services. On Ubisoft's end, the company will compensate Microsoft for the cloud streaming rights to Activision Blizzard’s games through a one-off payment and through a market-based wholesale pricing mechanism, including an option that supports pricing based on usage. Also, Ubisoft can add Activision Blizzard games on Ubisoft+ on the UK market. Interestingly, the CMA responded that the Ubisoft deal would also mean that games needs to be reached through Linux-based computers & not exclusively on Windows computers (probably macOS too). Finally & to add a little pressure, the CMA confirmed that this development and remade deal needs new scrutiny, which has a deadline date of Oct 18th, 2023. Hypothetically CMA taking this long, puts the ABK's Termination Fee raise if the deal fell agains Microsoft in effect. #Gaming #GamingNews

While it was NOT REQUIRED to close the transaction, New Zealand became the latest & last country on approving the #ActivisionBlizzard acquisition by Microsoft, after months leaning on disapprove at all. Now the UK with the CMA is the true final scenario. #Gaming #GamingNews

As expected, Microsoft & Activision Blizzard announced that they extended their closure deadline to 10/18 as they wish to have CMA on board officially. New terms include that ABK CAN sell assets to facilitate the deal closure & higher termination fee. #Xbox #Gaming #GamingNews

The TLDR, Microsoft accepted being classy and help CMA clean up their OWN MESS. Judge Smith was right on calling out that circumstances doesn't justify using tax money as they see fit, CMA should have NEVER implicitly associate their procedures with USA's FTC & Microsoft should have announced the Playstation COD deal AFTER having CAT keeping it on record instead a random post over the weekend.

Justice Smith surprisingly was un-amused that the Playstation Call Of Duty deal went under CAT's radar instead of the press and both Microsoft & CMA insisting on pausing the Microsoft appeal. But granted a hold until this Thursday for parties submit evidence to allow extension.

Good morning gamers! I'm busy since arriving to offline work this morning (hence today being Monday) & I am trying to look for all the details in the CAT hearing of today which so far, doesn't seem that both CMA & Microsoft cannot avoid the July 28th hearing. Will update ASAP.