The current massive acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft is still ongoing as it needs to pass a few market regulators before it can be finalised. However, gaming industry’s biggest companies are coming forward to support the acquisition, the first of which is Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two Interactive, whose CEO Strauss Zelnick recently gave it the stamp of approval.
Speaking to Yahoo News recently, Zelnick stated that he saw Microsoft as an ally of Take-Two Interactive and that he would support the acquisition since the companies would not be in direct competition with each other. Activision Blizzard will likely continue to publish under Xbox’s banner, while Take-Two will also publish in its own lane.
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However, Zelnick doubled down on stating that competition is, after all, a very healthy part of the gaming industry:
“Ultimately the consumer votes, and if we create great hits, which is our business, then consumers will show up, and no one can take that away from us. The entertainment business is the antithesis of a fungible commoditized business. Every title stands alone. So it sort of doesn’t compete with anything else and yet, it’s highly competitive in a way. In other words, we compete with everything and we compete with nothing. You can’t replace one of our titles with another title.”
UK competition watchdog the CMA has set a deadline of March 2023 for its ruling on Xbox’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, meaning we’ll have to wait a few more months to find out what the final verdict will be. It seems likely that the deal will go through, though it won’t go through easily without a bit of fight from PlayStation who argues that the acquisition could negatively impact the industry.
Source: Yahoo News
