After Sony, tech giant Google and chipmaker Nvidia have "expressed concerns" to the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over Microsoft's proposed $69-billion acquisition of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard.
According to a Bloomberg report, Google and Nvidia have told FTC that Microsoft would gain an unfair advantage in mobile, subscription and cloud services if the merger goes through.
Sources told Bloomberg that while Google objected to the deal, Nvidia stopped short of expressing opposition and stressed the importance of equal access to games for all services.
Nvidia's GeForce Now streaming service for games competes with cloud offerings from Microsoft and as the publication Eurogamer points out Microsoft was one of the companies that protested Nvidia's acquisition of ARM, which eventually fell through.
Google will shut down its game streaming service Stadia on January 18 but it still competes with Microsoft on online store offerings with its Play Store for Android.
Recently, it was discovered that Microsoft may be working on a Xbox branded store for mobile devices. The revelation was unearthed from a filing made to the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
The deal is under investigation by three separate regulatory authorities. The US Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against Microsoft in December 2022, to prevent the deal, while the European Union has sent out questionnaires to game developers, distributors and the general public for their opinion.
Sony, Microsoft's biggest rival in the console space, has been talking to authorities as well. It is concerned about Microsoft's handling of the lucrative Call of Duty franchise post-merger.
Microsoft announced the acquisition in January 2022 but has since battled a growing list of detractors to push the deal through. It has to close the deal before July 18 or pay a fee of $3 billion and the deal falls through.
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