European Commission Approves Microsoft Acquisition of Activision Blizzard
Less than a month after the deal was blocked by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority, the European Commission has cleared Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, finding that Microsoft «would have no incentive to refuse to distribute Activision’s games to Sony” and that “even if Microsoft did decide to withdraw Activision’s games from the PlayStation, this would not significantly harm competition in the consoles market.”
European Commission The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard (‘Activision') by Microsoft. The approval is conditional on full compliance with the commitments offered by Microsoft. The commitments fully address the competition concerns identified by the Commission and represent a significant improvement for cloud gaming as compared to the current situation. The Commission's in-depth market investigation indicated that Microsoft would not be able to harm rival consoles and rival multi-game subscription services. At the same time, it confirmed that Microsoft could harm competition in the distribution of games via cloud game streaming services and that its position in the market for PC operating systems would be strengthened.The Commission's glowing review of the deal still comes with reservations: requiring that Microsoft commit to licensing Activision Blizzard games to competing services, ensuring that gamers who have purchased or subscribed to access Activision games be able to stream those games on other devices and services than just Microsoft's own. This follows ten-year deals already proposed by Microsoft to bring Activision Blizzard games to Steam, Nintendo, and GeForce Now, which the Commission noted as
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