暴雪CEO称对于微软收购成功信心十足

今日，动视暴雪CEO Bobby Kotick与微软总裁Brad Smith向外媒The Verge发表声明称，他们对于收购完成信心十足。

Brad Smith：“虽然对我们该收购案充满信心，我们仍然致力于与监管机构一起提供创造性的解决方案，以保护科技行业的竞争，包括消费者和员工，正如我们从过去的诉讼中了解到的那样，找到一项能让所有人受益的协议的机会永远存在。”

Bobby Kotick：“没有任何合理、合法的理由阻止我们完成交易，我们的行业竞争非常激烈，引擎和开发工具都是免费的，游戏的分销渠道从未如此广泛，我们相信我们会在该案中取胜。

Microsoft wants to take over the publisher Activision Blizzard for a crazy amount of money, but needs the approval of numerous antitrust authorities around the world – and that has been a topic of conversation for months. In Great Britain, even public opinion was called upon, and what the general public has to say on the subject has now been published. While the American FTC is now filing a lawsuit against the planned takeover of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft and trying to take action against it, the British antitrust authority CMA took further steps some time ago and even called on the public to sign the deal with appropriate arguments. The relevant deadline for this has now expired and the CMA is now disclosing the feedback after concerns about the takeover had previously been expressed within the agency itself. The summary of the responses now states that 2,600 emails had to be sorted out first because they were incomprehensible or empty or contained objectionable content. If you disregard these submissions, then among the remaining submissions there were a surprising number of Brits on Microsoft’s side. 2,100 mails were evaluated, around 75 percent of them would decide in favor of Microsoft and support the takeover of Activision Blizzard by the Redmond company. Only around a quarter of the submissions positioned themselves clearly against the takeover. The arguments put forward are also interesting in this context. The proponents of the takeover state that Microsoft will be able to assert itself better against Sony and Nintendo on the market, because the competitors are generally seen as being much stronger and better positioned. Furthermore, the British public does not expect Call of Duty to become an Xbox exclusive. And: Many think that Sony has to become more innovative as a result, especially since the PlayStation platform has distinguished itself in the past by securing exclusive content or at least time exclusivities of prominent franchises such as Final Fantasy or Silent Hill. The other side, on the other hand, is critical of the deal because Microsoft is already dominant on the market, at least when it comes to PCs. Such a deal could then lead to a similar market power in the console area. Opponents also very much assume that Call of Duty is exclusive, after all Microsoft has already practiced the same thing after buying Bethesda and ZeniMax Media. And another point is viewed very critically: If the Activision Blizzard takeover by Microsoft actually goes through, that would pave the way for further large takeovers in the industry. Other large companies such as Take-Two, EA or Ubisoft could also be taken over as a result, which could damage the market and competition in the future. In the end, however, the evaluation is only about a limited amount of data of 2,100 e-mails, which does not necessarily have to be representative of the entire player community. If it were up to those involved here, the deal would go through. The question remains: What does the authority itself think and what is the next step? It is not known to what extent the submitted public opinion will influence the outcome of the proceedings. Microsoft @ gamescom 2022 – Mit Lies of P, Pentiment und A Plague Tale: Requiem Felix and Pirmin were at the Microsoft booth at gamescom and looked at three games at the same time. Lies of P, Pentiment and A Plague Tale: Requiem.