LONDON — LONDON (AP) — Microsoft’s stalled $68.7 billion deal to purchase online game firm Activision Blizzard has hit a contemporary hurdle in the UK, the place the antitrust watchdog mentioned Wednesday that it’s going to stifle competitors and harm players.

Britain’s Competitors and Markets Authority mentioned its in-depth investigation discovered that the deal may strengthen Microsoft’s place within the rising cloud gaming market, “harming U.Ok. players who can not afford costly consoles.” In cloud gaming, gamers stream video games on cell phones and handheld gadgets they already personal.

The blockbuster deal additionally may harm British players by “weakening the essential rivalry” between Microsoft’s Xbox console and Sony‘s rival PlayStation machines, the watchdog mentioned in a provisional report.

The all-cash deal, which is about to be the biggest within the historical past of the tech business, is going through opposition from Sony and pushback from regulators within the U.S. and Europe as a result of it will give Microsoft management of well-liked recreation franchises corresponding to Name of Responsibility, World of Warcraft and Sweet Crush.

“Our job is to guarantee that U.Ok. players usually are not caught within the crossfire of worldwide offers that, over time, may harm competitors and lead to greater costs, fewer decisions, or much less innovation,” Martin Coleman, chair of the impartial professional panel that carried out the investigation, mentioned in a press launch. “We’ve provisionally discovered that this can be the case right here.”

Microsoft’s deputy basic counsel, Rima Alaily, mentioned the corporate is “dedicated to providing efficient and simply enforceable options that tackle the CMA’s issues.”

Activision additionally mentioned it hopes to “be capable to assist the CMA higher perceive our business.” In an inside e mail to staff, CEO Bobby Kotick mentioned Activision seems ahead to persevering with constructive talks with regulators in Britain and the European Union, with the 27-nation bloc additionally investigating the deal.

“We’re additionally assured that the regulation — and the information — are on our facet,” he mentioned.

The U.Ok. antitrust investigation is now set to pull on for a number of extra months, dashing Microsoft’s hopes {that a} speedy favorable consequence may assist it resolve a lawsuit introduced by the U.S. Federal Commerce Fee.

The British regulator mentioned it would search suggestions, together with attainable choices to handle its competitors issues, from events for its closing report due April 26.

The FTC has sought to dam the deal, arguing that the merger may violate antitrust legal guidelines by suppressing opponents to Xbox and its rising recreation subscription enterprise.

Microsoft advised the FTC’s administrative choose in January that it was working to resolve the U.Ok. investigation, in addition to the separate EU probe, and hoped to convey again proposed treatments to U.S. regulators.

The Activision Blizzard deal is certainly one of a number of regulatory hassles for Microsoft in Europe amid expanded scrutiny for Massive Tech firms on each side of the Atlantic over worries that they’ve turn out to be too dominant.

One of many deal’s flashpoints is Activision’s hit online game Name of Responsibility. Sony has raised issues about dropping entry to what it calls a “must-have” recreation title, whereas Microsoft has promised to make it out there on all platforms.

“Our dedication to grant long-term 100% equal entry to  Name of Responsibility to Sony, Nintendo, Steam and others preserves the deal’s advantages to players and builders and will increase competitors out there,” Alaily mentioned.

The U.Ok. watchdog mentioned choices to ease its issues embody blocking the deal, promoting off a part of Activision’s enterprise or a so-called behavioral treatment corresponding to an settlement to make well-liked video games like Name of Responsibility out there on different platforms, which it mentioned can be much less efficient.

It isn’t the primary time the British watchdog has flexed its antitrust enforcement muscle tissue over a Massive Tech settlement. Final 12 months, it blocked Fb mother or father Meta’s acquisition of GIF-sharing platform Giphy over competitors issues, forcing the social media firm to unwind the deal.

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AP Know-how Author Matt O’Brien in Windfall, R.I., contributed to this report.