Blizzard National Service Family Barrel Suspension entered the 93rd day. A week of good drama began, and it was all explosive news at the beginning. First, NetEase said it would sue Blizzard Entertainment for owing 300 million yuan, and then the British CMA blocked Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
On the evening of April 26, the British Competition and Markets Authority CMA announced that it officially rejected Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, citing concerns that the deal would damage competition in the cloud gaming market, leading to less innovation and choice for British gamers in the coming years. This reason is very ridiculous, NetEase head Zhang Dong commented sharply on this: "This reason for not criticizing is really insulting the IQ of every game industry practitioner and console player."
Affected by the news, Activision Blizzard fell as much as 10% pre-market, and continued to fall after the open.
For the CMA's ruling, Microsoft and Activision both said they were not satisfied and would continue to appeal. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Cordik sent an internal letter to the whole company, saying that he would fight the CMA to the end. He said that the ruling is not yet final and that the riot will be challenged by Microsoft in the British competition court. Caudick said the acquisition was still full of information, which would not reduce competition compared to the deal, but instead the CMA's decision would kill the entire UK gaming industry.
Some time ago, the CMA showed in its latest investigation report that Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard would not adversely affect the competition of cloud gaming in the future, but today it directly denied the deal, which also surprised many players at home and abroad. If the CMA insists on a negative ruling, then Microsoft can only exit the UK market if it wants to succeed in the acquisition, but this is less likely, because the UK is currently Activision's second largest market, and abandonment will mean huge losses for both parties, depending on how it is ultimately decided.
In this way, players who originally hoped to promote the progress of the national service after Microsoft's acquisition may be disappointed. First of all, if Microsoft and riot continue to appeal, many things that were originally scheduled must be delayed, and the negotiations for a new agent of the national service will also be postponed. Because the final date for the acquisition is currently set at July 18, a continued appeal would mean that date could be further delayed. This is the bad news that can be determined at the moment, and we will definitely have to wait again.
Of course, some players believe that this matter is reversed, and if Blizzard is not successfully acquired in the end, it may not be a bad thing. Once the biggest deal in the history of the game ends in failure, it means that Blizzard will fall into a cooler situation, and you will have to struggle hard to get out of it, then you must find a way to return to the Chinese market, and you will have to work harder to sell your whole family barrel and find a Chinese agent to continue negotiations.
In fact, regardless of the success of the transaction, once the acquisition is closed, Blizzard must re-examine the national service market, especially once it fails, the national service market will become its lifesaver.
But if Codik continues to sit in Activision Blizzard, what will happen later is really difficult to say. Anyway, from the current situation, it is right to give a song "Cool and Cool" to Blizzard. As for the future of national services, the uncertainty is higher.