Canezza said:Brazil's competition regulator has approved Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard and has rejected Sony's arguments, saying its job isn't to defend "the particular interest of specific competitors."
Exactly.
It was reported that PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan flew to Brussels last month to meet EU regulators and voice Sony's concerns about the deal in person.
This sounds very sketchy. The dominant entity in the industry attempting to influence regulatory bodies. Hopefully, the EU regulators will follow Brazil's lead.
CADE focusing on the FPS franchise. The regulator said that if Activision Blizzard games, including Call of Duty, were to become exclusive to Xbox, this exclusivity "would not result in a substantial reduction in the levels of competition."
As a console agnostic, I want all console manufacturers to prosper--Sony, Nintendo, & Microsoft. I prefer that games not be restricted and am against exclusivity on principle. Of the three manufacturers, Microsoft has the fewest exclusives both in number and as a percentage of the game library. It is hardly credible that a larger competitor that relies heavily on exclusivity can, with a straight face, make an argument that the Activision-Blizzard deal should be deep sixed because Microsoft might add a handful of exclusives to their current slim offerings.