Microsoft finally lays UK regulators' cloud gaming fears to rest—new consultation suggests an end to the drawn-out Activision Blizzard acquisition saga

pcgamer.com:

Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard has been a major source of corporate drama these past few months. Back in April, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) moved to block the acquisition, stating «Microsoft’s proposed solution failed to effectively address the concerns in the cloud gaming sector». This block included a massive, 200-plus page findings report that suggests «The evidence we have seen suggests that cloud gaming may be an important disruptive force in the gaming industry.» 

This rejection came as a bit of a surprise, since things had been looking brighter after a prior u-turn on Call of Duty, which was a prior pain point outlined in the findings report. This led to some stern finger-wagging from Microsoft's president, Brad Smith, who called the move 'bad for Britain'—which even spilled over into parliament, with questions over whether the UK was even 'open for business' from MPs on the government's Business and Trade Committee.

It seems things are moving forward, though, according to a statement by the UK Government. «Earlier this year, the CMA blocked Microsoft from acquiring the whole of Activision due to concerns that the deal would harm competition in cloud gaming in the UK. After that deal was blocked, Microsoft submitted a restructured transaction in August for the CMA to review.

»Under that new deal, Microsoft will not purchase the cloud gaming rights held by Activision, which will instead be sold to an independent third party, Ubisoft Entertainment SA (Ubisoft)." This means that Microsoft no longer has exclusive rights to keep Activision Blizzard games on future cloud gaming services. Instead, Ubisoft will be «free to offer Activision's games both directly to consumers and cloud