ANALYSIS: UK’s CMA Sees a Threat in Microsoft’s Activision Deal

The UK’s competition regulator said in September that it will conduct an in-depth review of Microsoft Corp.‘s proposed $68 billion purchase of game juggernaut Activision Blizzard Inc. The review highlights sticky issues at the intersection between digital markets and physical markets, and demonstrates how hard it can be to draw neat lines around tech markets.

The Competition and Markets Authority is considering the merger’s impacts on three intertwined markets: gaming consoles (and their associated digital stores), multi-game subscription services, and cloud gaming services (game streaming).

The analysis is tricky because the game market may be shifting from a ...