Microsoft is running full-page ads in UK papers promoting its Activision Blizzard merger plans

Microsoft is running full-page adverts in UK newspapers promoting its plans to merge with Activision Blizzard.

As spotted by The Verge reporter Tom Warren, the advert pictured below appeared in both the Financial Times and the Daily Mail this week.

It includes Microsoft’s claim that that should the $69 billion deal go through, Xbox will be able to offer Call of Duty to more than 150 million additional players.

This claim refers to Microsoft’s commitment to bring the blockbuster shooter series to Nintendo Switch’s nearly 125 million installed base, and GeForce Now’s 25 million users.

Last month, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it had provisionally found that Microsoft’s Activision deal could reduce competition and “result in higher prices, fewer choices, or less innovation” for players.

It suggested the simplest way to ensure there isn’t a significant lessening of competition would be to block the deal entirely or implement a partial divestiture of Activision Blizzard that would see parts of the business such as Call of Duty sold off and removed from the equation.

However, the CMA said it would also consider behavioural remedies, such as Microsoft’s commitment to making Call of Duty available on other platforms post-merger, although it views these as less favourable than structural ones which rarely require monitoring and enforcement once implemented.

The CMA has raised concerns that Microsoft could choose to apply a range of tactics to stifle competition if the deal is approved. These include withholding games or content from rival Sony and degrading the quality of Activision titles on PlayStation.

In a response to these findings published on Wednesday, Sony argued that behavioural remedies would be insufficient to address the regulator’s concerns because there are “myriad ways Microsoft could withhold or degrade access [which] would be extremely difficult to monitor and police”.

One of the ways Microsoft could choose to circumvent its obligations would be to release buggy Call of Duty games for PlayStation, it claimed.

Microsoft recently said it has offered Sony a 10-year, legally enforceable contract to make each new Call of Duty game available on PlayStation the same day it comes to Xbox – with full content and feature parity.

In its response to the CMA’s findings, Microsoft confirmed it has also offered Sony the option to put future Call of Duty games on its PlayStation Plus subscription service on day one, although its rival alleged the offer could be reliant on unsustainable licensing costs, which would force it to raise prices.

Microsoft also sought to dismiss suggestions that it could raise Xbox Game Pass prices following the addition of popular Activision Blizzard content to its subscription services post-merger.

The company has also said that it is willing to pay a third-party agency to oversee its compliance with any agreed behavioural remedies.