British watchdog: Microsoft 'Call of Duty' exclusivity 'would not be commercially beneficial'

March 24 (UPI) -- The British government's Competition and Markets Authority has reversed provisional findings that originally claimed the proposed acquisition of Activision by Microsoft raised "competition concerns," that Microsoft would make Activision's blockbuster Call of Duty franchise exclusive to its Xbox consoles.

The watchdog said that new evidence showed that it "would not be commercially beneficial" for Microsoft to make the popular game series exclusive to Xbox and would instead still have a financial incentive to make them available on rival PlayStation systems.

"Having considered the additional evidence provided, we have now provisionally concluded that the merger will not result in a substantial lessening of competition of console gaming services because the cost to Microsoft of withholding Call of Duty from PlayStation would outweigh any gains from taking such action," Martin Coleman, chair of the individual panel of experts that conducted the investigation said.

In its original report, the British antitrust regulator ruled the merger would reduce competition in the market leading to higher prices and fewer choices for the country's gamers.

It also determined that the merger could also make Microsoft even stronger in cloud gaming, stifling competition in this growing market and harming British gamers who cannot afford expensive consoles.

Coleman said that its view that the deal raised concerns surrounding cloud gaming were "not affected" by Friday's announcement.

In December, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint against Microsoft seeking to block the $69 billion deal to buy Activision. Later that month, Microsoft filed a response to the FTC complaint.

If the $69 billion deal goes through it will be the single biggest in the history of the video game industry.