This week will make one of the key dates in Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard. On Tuesday 21 February 2023, this hearing will take place, behind closed doors, in Brussels, which all key stakeholders or participants in this pre-EU process are expected to attend. Naturally, Microsoft, Activision Blizzard, and Sony are in attendance, as well as Google, Nvidia, Electronic Arts, and Valve. In addition, he will attend the European Video Game Development Federation (EGDF, European Game Developers Association), possibly as an objective defender of gamers’ interests in the territory of the community.
As major opponents of the agreement, Sony and Google are expected to raise objections. However, economic analyst Florian Müller showed his reluctance to do so Google support for Sonycommenting that “With this ally, Sony doesn’t need enemies.«. And it is that Google does not have a good record of anti-competitive claims and petitions before the European Commission, because the number of appeals it has lost is unprecedented. Even Mueller points out that one of the last actions on the territory of the European Union in terms of Protecting digital servicesRegulation (EU) 2022/1925 of the European Parliament and of the Council of September 14, 2022 on contested and equitable markets in the digital sector, mainly intended for Google.
Google is not Sony’s best ally before the European Union because of its predecessors in terms of competition.
Nvidia abandons Sony in its fight against Microsoft over its “extreme positions”:
Plus, everything indicates that Google is Sony’s only ally in its fight against the agreement, because Nvidia would have dropped the case. Indeed, Mueller himself refers to it Nvidia has never been against the purchasebut simply tried to “take advantage” of the situation to get a better deal between Microsoft and Nvidia GeForce Now, Nvidia’s cloud gaming service; A situation that is usually common with third parties, when an agreement of this magnitude is reached.
Nvidia GeForce will now use the RTX 4080: it will be the most powerful video game streaming service
somosxbox.com
In addition, it affects a very interesting aspect: the European Union and the FTC have already blocked the purchase of ARM from Nvidia. Therefore, you are unlikely to be in a position to push or suggest corrective action.
Google would be a bad ally for Sony. Regarding Nvidia:
-
He’s not asking to block the deal, so he won’t support Sony’s extreme stance.
-
He just wants some kind of access to the content (i.e. opportunism).
-
They prevented him from buying ARM »
