Marvels Cinematic Universe: MCU LORE, CANON and Other Extra Stuff, Possible/Open Spoilers

When they ask the lawyer of who’s next…

Unless a platform holder (obviously MS) buys one of the remaining big publishers, I don't see another future acquisition with this level of scrutiny. In any case, some possible crazy acquisitions from a regulatory point of view:

- MS buying Sony/Nintendo, or viceversa (a "3 to 2" merger in the industry would raise so many alarms);

- MS, Sony or Nintendo buying T2, EA, Epic and maybe Ubisoft (almost all of them fit the ABK criteria);

- MS, Sony or Nintendo buying some big Japanese/Korean/Chinese publishers (Bandai Namco, Square Enix, Nexon, Konami, MiHoyo, Krafton, Capcom, Sega, etc). Mainly due to the particularities of those companies (usually a mix of assets not always related to video games) + the complexities of an unusual regulatory body + the majority having some very relevant IPs.

Besides, in the case of MS, getting bigger is going to make every future move a bit more difficult and those acquisitions will likely fall under new DMA (EU) or DMU/DMCC (UK) regulation.

BigTech (Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta, Tencent, Disney, etc) doing big publishers acquisitions (EA, T2, Epic, etc) would also raise a few alarms (ecosystem theories of harm, very likely).

In any case, this acquisition also had a big level of scrutiny because there was a very vocal and relevant opponent (Sony). That's not usually the case.

But yes, not doubt in my mind that this acquisition going through is going to open the door to more M&A in the industry, no less.