The deal would have been the largest in video game industry history had it gone ahead, but it was met with fierce opposition from Sony and the subject of intense scrutiny by regulators in the United States and Europe, due to fears that it would give Microsoft control of electronic games.
Microsoft chief Brad Smith slammed the decision, saying it was “Microsoft’s darkest day in Britain”, and threatened to move the company’s operations to the European Union because it was “friendlier” than London.
Commenting on the events, ‘E sports middle east’ CEO Saeed Sharaf told ‘Sky News Arabia’:
“The deal greatly benefits Microsoft as it seeks to acquire Blizzard to become the world’s third-largest games company.” “But the decision of the British censorship authority depends on several points, the most important of which is that Microsoft’s dominance in cloud games will affect whether or not they are available to everyone.” “Microsoft owns the Windows operating system that most people around the world use, so its acquisition of Blizzard will reduce Blizzard’s efforts to make its games available on other operating systems.” “Sony has dominated home entertainment devices, especially through the PlayStation, while Microsoft has tried to compete with Xbox. By acquiring games from Blizzard, it means the market for home entertainment devices for Xbox will be stronger and will strongly compete with Sony.” “Microsoft lets people play on Xbox and Windows devices, while Sony doesn’t have an operating system like Windows, so it’s only governed by PlayStation devices.”
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