Microsoft CEO is “Very Confident” About Activision Blizzard Deal

Despite the UK’s CMA announcing an in-depth investigation of Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal, CEO Satya Nadella is feeling confident about the outcome. The $68 billion purchase will be the biggest acquisition in Microsoft’s history, and the company expects the deal to close before June 2023.

“Of course, any acquisition of this size will go through scrutiny, but we feel very, very confident that we’ll come out,” Nadella said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. The exec also emphasized that Microsoft isn’t exactly a market later in the video games industry compared to Sony.

“We are number four, number five depending on how you count in gaming. In fact, the number one player, in this case Sony, I think even in this period has acquired three companies. So if this is about competition, let us have competition,” Nadella said.

In recent weeks, Microsoft and Sony have been in conflict about the future of the Call of Duty franchise on PlayStation consoles. Jim Ryan, President and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment publicly complained about Microsoft being only committed to offering Call of Duty on PlayStation for three years after the current agreement between Sony and Activision ends.

Microsoft later responded that it “zero business sense” to remove Call of Duty from PlayStation considering it’s the most popular console on the market. But even though Microsoft gives Call of Duty the Minecraft treatment and keeps it multiplatform, Sony isn’t thrilled about future Call of Duty and Activision Blizzard games launching day one on Xbox Game Pass.

As Nadella pointed out, though, Sony has also been playing the acquisition game to maintain its market-leading position. In recent months, the company purchased Destiny 2 developer Bungie and Returnal studio Housemarque. The company also regularly signs timed exclusivity deals with video game publishers to the detriment of Xbox gamers.