New Zealand’s Commerce Commission (CC) says competition in the cloud market would be harmed if Microsoft could gobble up Activision’s Blizzard King.

The CC wrote in a document (Statement of Issues): “We are concerned that these effects may arise as a result of the merged entity either partially or fully foreclosing its rivals in cloud gaming, such as Sony or Nvidia, from accessing certain Activision [Blizzard King] content, and in particular the game Call of Duty (CoD), to the detriment of competition in cloud gaming.

We are also continuing to consider whether the Proposed Transaction would substantially lessen competition due to the merged entity either partially or fully foreclosing its rivals in gaming consoles, in particular Sony, from accessing certain Activision content to the detriment of competition in the supply of video game consoles. If Activision’s game titles are sufficiently crucial to driving sales of cloud gaming services or video game consoles, then this could result in the merged entity having both incentive and ability to foreclose rivals’ access to this content, weakening their ability to compete” writes CC, which has not yet decided whether to approve the $68.7 billion transaction.

The CC is waiting for documents and evidence from Microsoft, ActiBlitz, and interested parties until July 4, and the regulator will announce its decision by July 17. The acquisition has already been approved in more than 40 countries, but the FTC in the US and the CMA in the UK are blocking the deal. The former is seeking a temporary restraining order, the latter has rejected the acquisition, and Microsoft has appealed.

Late last year, a group of players sued Microsoft over its attempted takeover. Still, a few months ago, the Redmond company succeeded in stopping the lawsuit because no evidence was available. This group is now back with an amended lawsuit targeting Matt Booty, the head of Xbox Game Studios, and Tim Stuart, Microsoft’s chief financial officer, and they have reportedly emailed about it. The case was reported by Axios.

According to the email, they “uncontroverted evidence that Microsoft intended to put its main competition, the Sony PlayStation, out of the market.” Okay, let’s see if that’s true…

Source: WCCFTech, PSU