Xbox owner Microsoft has hit back at claims its plan to buy the maker of Call of Duty may unfairly affect its rivals, including Sony, which owns PlayStation.
Microsoft wants to buy Activision Blizzard, which also makes Overwatch and Candy Crush, for $68.7bn (£59.2bn). The UK watchdog looking into the plan has said Microsoft could use Activision games to "out-compete" its rivals. Microsoft said it still hoped the deal would be closed by June 2023. Competition regulators in Saudi Arabia and Brazil have already approved it. But last month, the Competition and Markets Authority announced it would be asking a independent panel to look into the proposal.
Activision Blizzard is one of the world's largest video game developers and publishers. And the CMA suggested buying it could allow Microsoft to monopolise top games such as Call of Duty by making them available primarily on Xbox consoles, PCs and Game Pass, its cloud gaming service.
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