Microsoft rivals attack CMA for blocking Activision deal

Microsoft’s cloud-gaming rivals have hit out at the UK competition watchdog’s decision to block its $69 billion takeover of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard.

Nvidia and Boosteroid, two of the Xbox owner’s biggest competitors in cloud gaming, said they backed the deal.

The Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) ruling last week was attacked as “bad for Britain” by Brad Smith, the Microsoft president. Activision said it showed that “the UK is clearly closed for business”.

The watchdog did not have concerns about the takeover’s effects on the video games console market. Instead it blocked the deal because Microsoft controls about two-thirds of cloud gaming, where gamers play on mobile phones or on smart TVs without a console. It is a fast-growing part of the

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