Rather late in the day given the turmoil in the market ahead of the launch of 32-bit and 64-bit machines, the UK Monopolies & Mergers Commission yesterday announced that it had found Sega Enterprises Ltd and Nintendo Co Ltd guilty of monopolistic practices in their domination of the ú400m UK video games market. It found that both deliberately kept down the prices of their consoles while inflating the price of games, and that the restrictions on the licences independent publishers need to do games for Sega or Nintendo consoles gave them control of both prices and the level of choice for the consumer. It believes that either some of the restrictions in the licence conditions should be removed, and if agreement on this was not possible, it might consider introducing price controls. There will now be a three-month consultation period for interested parties to discuss the recommendations. Sega Europe said it was disappointed at the report’s findings but plans to participate in the consultation pe riod. Nintendo was still preparing a statement.
