EU Decision On Microsoft – Activision Deal Moved To May 22

gameranx.com:

The EU has now moved its final decision for the Microsoft – Activision deal to May 22, 2023.

As reported by Reuters, this follows Microsoft’s offer of remedies to the European Commission.

Now, you may have noticed that the EU has not been as forthcoming on information about their investigation of this deal as the FTC or the UK’s CMA has been. It’s simply a matter of differing policy not to make these disclosures.

It was notable that shortly after deciding to start investigations, EU had to make clarifications after one of their employees made glib claims online that they would block the deal to favor Sony fans.

The EU’s silence has continued to be the subject of speculation during the duration of this investigation. Some rumor started spreading early this year that the FTC moved to sue Microsoft, because they expected the EU to approve the deal, and wanted to pre-empt them.

A few days after that, Microsoft accused Sony’s Jim Ryan of lying to the EU about their Call of Duty deal. This has now become front and center of the investigation at the moment, as Sony then accused Microsoft of adding provisions in that deal that would harm their business.

Microsoft’s offer of remedies are simply, the growing number of deals that they have made with competitors for Call of Duty, with the possibility of Activision and Blizzard games to follow. To date, Microsoft has penned deals with Nintendo, Nvidia for GeForce Now, Boosteroid, and Ubitus. They also tried to put a commitment in writing for Valve’s Steam marketplace, but Valve turned it down because they believed Microsoft would follow through without requiring a contract.

Microsoft also stated that they would not accept the proposed remedy to spin off Call of Duty or Activision.