In what was a major setback for Microsoft, UK's Competition and Markets Authority blocked its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The deal had been announced in January, but had to be greenlit by the CMA to ensure it wouldn't stifle competitiveness in the video games industry. While it looked like the CMA would approve the deal, it was blocked for reasons related to cloud gaming.
Both parties have said that they will do everything in their power to ensure that the deal goes through, but some people are convinced that the CMA is in bed with Sony, and has blocked the deal on a minor technicality. Of course, these are people who still engage in console wars in 2023, so a lot of their reasoning might be flawed. In retaliation for the CMA's decision, it appears that they are now spamming the authority's Twitter account.
You may think that those voicing their opinion on the matter would only do so on the Tweet where the CMA has explained its reasoning, but they have actually done so on almost every recent Tweet. If you head over to the CMA's handle, you'll see accusatory replies by Xbox fans even on an unrelated Tweet about Google’s Privacy Sandbox commitment.
The flood of replies persists even on a Tweet where some lady explains the CMA's Economics Returners Programme. "Glad you're looking for new staff. The people working there at the moment are clearly not up to it after handing a huge win to Sony to keep dominating the console market and the Apple Google duopoly for mobile phones while claiming it was about keeping those markets open," says one of the replies.
However, the bulk of the spam is on any Tweet that mentions Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. A thread that attempts to explain its reasons for blocking the deal received a lot of negative replies.
"Lol, utterly desperate stuff," said one. "The whole UK gaming market was worth £7.05 billion in 2022 - tell me how much of that was purely Microsoft vs Sony/Nintendo. It's like you were looking for the flimsiest excuse to clock it at any cost and cloud gaming is what you landed on."
"Honestly, if I were Microsoft/Activision I would just pull out as much from the UK as possible and move to Europe or the US all UK headquarters/services. Let Sony invest more in the UK," said another reply. To be fair, not all the replies were filled with conspiracy theories. Some of them had legit concerns about the CMA's decision.
To rub salt in the wound, the CMA has now announced that the Microsoft and Activision Blizzard deal will be blocked for ten years unless the appeal is successful.