The next step in Microsoft's acquisition review risks full-blown console war

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has issued a public call for evidence regarding its ongoing review of Microsoft's Activision-Blizzard acquisition.

The regulator, which is examining the merger in notable detail, says that "at this point we invite anyone, including members of the public, to share their views with us." This step comes during the second phase of the CMA investigation, in which it will look to gather evidence "to investigate potential issues with competition that could arise as a result of the merger."

Gathering evidence from the public is an important aspect of this process, but rarely is the community divide quite so tribal. The 'console wars' have been rumbling on for years, but the clashes between Xbox and PlayStation fans have usually tended to come down to differences between hardware, or the games on offer. This time, however, there's a significant amount of money and influence to argue over. If Xbox completes its deal, it'll be home to some of the biggest franchises in games, which has Sony understandably worried.

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The discourse around console-of-choice is never particularly civil, and now that PlayStation fans have the chance to upset Xbox's biggest potential win in years, I can't see that conversation becoming more reasonable. Industry analyst Daniel Ahmad alluded to just that in a recent tweet:

Confusingly, fans of each company will be attempting to embellish the achievements of their rivals. Microsoft has been attempting to leverage Sony's pre-existing catalogue of exclusives, while Sony is pointing to the shopping spree that Microsoft has been on over recent years as evidence of its future, if not current market dominance. That peculiar back and forth has already reared its head, as Microsoft has suggested that even with Call of Duty under its belt, it'll still be "significantly" smaller than Sony. Whatever happens, pour one out for the CMA staff who have to wade through all these public comments.

Wondering what's on the horizon for Microsoft? Take a look at our upcoming Xbox Series X games list.