Eurogamer Newscast: Will Microsoft's $68bn Activision Blizzard buyout be blocked?
Cod wars.
This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we're back discussing Microsoft's big Activision Blizzard deal and the latest developments in the ongoing saga of the $68bn buyout being finalised.
Yesterday, Microsoft leapt upon the latest concerned update from the UK's deal regulator and repeatedly tried to minimise its own importance in the video games market. Microsoft stated it was far from the leader in terms of console share and PC games sold, and lacked any real presence on mobile devices. In a particularly eye-opening claim, Microsoft even said PlayStation's userbase would be "significantly larger" than Xbox even if every COD player ditched Sony. At the same time, Microsoft also criticised the regulator for appearing to take Sony's own complaints about the deal at face value.
Is this fighting talk from Microsoft, or squeaky bum time in Redmond over real concerns the UK will block the deal outright? Tom Phillips, Victoria Kennedy, Ishraq Subhan and Liv Ngan share their thoughts on whether the deal will go through, what changes Microsoft could make to get it over the finish line, and whether it should go ahead.
