Microsoft-Activision Buyout Approved By European Commission
One more territory has given Microsoft the go-ahead to spend $68.7 billion on the Call of Duty publisher.
By Darryn Bonthuys on
The European Commission has approved Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, commenting that Microsoft's commitment to keep Activision games on rival platforms helped regulators reach a decision.
According to the EU, Microsoft «would have no incentive to refuse to distribute Activision’s games to Sony,» and even if it did decide to make those games exclusive to its platforms, doing so «would not significantly harm competition in the consoles market.»
«Even without being able to offer this specific game, Sony could leverage its size, extensive games catalog, and market position to fend off any attempt to weaken its competitive position,» the EU said in a press statement. The EU's approval includes a requirement for Microsoft to automatically license Activision Blizzard games to competing cloud gaming services globally, giving consumers more choice on which platform they want to play these games on.
The European Commission has required Microsoft to license popular Activision Blizzard games automatically to competing cloud gaming services. This will apply globally and will empower millions of consumers worldwide to play these games on any device they choose.
The EU did note that it originally had concerns about Microsoft's dominance in the cloud gaming space, and that cloud gaming services could potentially hurt competition around the distribution of PC and console games if the acquisition goes through, but Microsoft did offer several remedies when this was first brought up.
To address those concerns, Microsoft offered a free license to consumers in the European Economic Area to allow them to
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