A fight is underway between one of the world's most powerful tech companies and the UK authorities.

On the front line, one of the most successful games of all time, Call of Duty.

A month ago, the UK's competition watchdog Blocked a Deal by Microsoft to take over Call of Duty's developer.

It sent shockwaves through the gaming industry.

British anti-trust regulators of Blocked Microsoft's $69 billion deal to buy video game maker Activision Blizzard.

The old cash deal was set to be the biggest in the history of the tech industry put together by the maker of Xbox video game consoles.

You heard that right. The deal is worth $69 billion. That's roughly the GDP of Croatia.

But in the world's most lucrative entertainment industry, a sector worth more than both the film and music industries combined, what does the decision mean for Britain's business reputation on the global stage?

The English channel has never seemed wider, in terms of Europe as a continent being attractive to investment.

And in post-Brexit Britain, could this deal land a fatal blow to the government's plans to make the UK a global tech superpower?

We should soon act as said they'd like to be the Silicon Valley of Europe. And if it feels like this can't get through, they're not going to be Silicon Valley. They'll be Death Valley.

You're listening to stories of our times. From the times and the Sunday times. I'm Jenny Cleeman.

Today, how Call of Duty became Britain's post-Brexit battleground.

I'm Katie Prescott. I'm Technology Business Editor at the Times newspaper.

Last month, Katie, the boss of one of the most powerful big tech companies in the world, made quite an extraordinary statement about the UK. What did he say?

So this is a chat called Brad Smith, who is known as the diplomat of Silicon Valley. He's the president at Microsoft, and he's been at the business for 30 years.

I've interviewed him before and he is very statesman-like, very measured. He's a lawyer by background, so he chooses his words carefully, judiciously, one might say.

So it was very striking when he went on BBC radio about a deal that Microsoft was trying to do around the world.

He said the European Union is a more attractive place to start a business if you want some data sell it than the United Kingdom.

But this decision, I have to say, is probably the darkest day in our four decades in Britain.

So very, very punchy statements indeed, and really I would say hitting the UK government where it hurts, invoking Brexit, and invoking investment in technology, which is a real driver for the government at the moment.

We'll come back to that punchy statement later, but first, we need to understand the deal at the heart of the story.

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