Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has claimed that blocking Microsoft ’s acquisition of the Call of Duty publisher would represent a major blow to the UK government’s ambition of becoming a technology superpower.

The UK’s Competition and Market Authority (CMA) is this week expected to issue its provisional findings on the $69 billion deal and notify the relevant parties of possible remedies to any antitrust concerns it may hold.

Microsoft is said to have paid close attention to the CMA, as it’s seen to be less predictable than regulators in the EU and USA, and could potentially influence their decisions on its proposed deal.

Kotick said he thinks that regulators scrutinising the deal have failed to grasp this and are somewhat “confused” about who’s competing with who in the games business.

Jeremy Hunt, the UK’s chancellor of the exchequer, recently said he plans to transform the country into “the world’s next Silicon Valley”, but blocking Xbox’s Activision deal could have the opposite effect, Kotick claimed.

“If you’re the UK and you have an incredibly educated workforce, you have a lot of technical talent, places like Cambridge where the best AI and machine learning is, I would think you’re going to embrace a transaction like this where you’re going to see job creation and opportunity.