Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard approved by UK regulator – WGB, Home of AWESOME Reviews
The saga of Microsoft attempted to purchase Activision Blizzard is set to finally come to a close as the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has officially approved the deal.
Providing both parties still wish to proceed, the CMA’s decision will allow Microsoft’s to finalise its purchase of Activision Blizzard over a year and a half after the deal was first announced.
In order to get the deal approved, Microsoft had to make a key concession by agreeing to sell the streaming rights to Activision Blizzard games to Ubisoft. This was due to the CMA’s concerns that Microsoft would hold too much power in the growing Cloud gaming market. In September the CMA said the new deal was enough for it to provisionally approve the plan, but now the decision is official.
The CMA issued a short statement on X (formerly Twitter) which said: “We’ve cleared the new deal for Microsoft to buy Activision without cloud gaming rights. In August, Microsoft made a concession that would see Ubisoft, instead of Microsoft, buy Activision’s cloud gaming rights.
“This new deal will stop Microsoft from locking up competition in cloud gaming, preserving competitive prices and services for UK cloud gamers.”
In a longer statement issued by Sarah Cardell, Chief Executive of the CMA, the group said: “We delivered a clear message to Microsoft that the deal would be blocked unless they comprehensively addressed our concerns and stuck to our guns on that.
“With the sale of Activision’s cloud streaming rights to Ubisoft, we’ve made sure Microsoft can’t have a stranglehold over this important and rapidly developing market. As cloud gaming grows, this intervention will ensure people get more competitive prices, better services and more choice. We are the only competition agency globally to have delivered this outcome.”
Cardell also opted to throw a little shade at Microsoft when she addressed why the process had taken so long.
“Businesses and their advisors should be in no doubt that the tactics employed by Microsoft are no way to engage with the CMA,” Cardell said. “Microsoft had the chance to restructure during our initial investigation but instead continued to insist on a package of measures that we told them simply wouldn’t work. Dragging out proceedings in this way only wastes time and money.”
Once Microsoft absorbs Activision Blizzard into its gelatinous body it will give the tech and software giant a wealth of gaming IP, not least the money-making juggernaut that is Call of Duty. It will also help expand the company’s growth into the mobile market due to the oft forgotten King, the people behind stuff like Candy Crush.
According to Activision, it’s games won’t start hitting Game Pass until 2024, though, which is a little surprising. You would think Microsoft would want to get stuff like Diablo 4 and the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 into the subscription service as soon as possible to help boost the numbers.
Whether you like or dislike companies snapping up other entities, I think we can all agree that this is a pretty momentous moment in the ongoing history of gaming.
