“The cloud allows UK gamers to avoid buying expensive gaming consoles and PCs and gives them much more flexibility and choice as to how they play,” the U.K. regulator wrote. “Allowing Microsoft to take such a strong position in the cloud gaming market just as it begins to grow rapidly would risk undermining the innovation that is crucial to the development of these opportunities.”
The regulator rejected a proposal from Microsoft that would have set out requirements governing what games must be offered to what platforms, and on what conditions, something that would have played out over a 10-year period. It also said Microsoft’s proposal was not sufficiently open to providers who might want to work on systems other than Windows. Such an agreement would also put too much regulatory oversight over individual games and platforms, it said.
“By contrast, preventing the merger would effectively allow market forces to continue to operate and shape the development of cloud gaming without this regulatory intervention,” the regulator wrote.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
