Microsoft’s Acquisition of Activision Blizzard Approved by European Commission

gamingbolt.com:

The European Commission has announced its approval of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. This is after the Competition and Markets Authority in the United Kingdom blocked the deal due to concerns over competition in the cloud gaming market.

Interestingly, the Commission said the acquisition is approved due to full compliance by Microsoft on commitments that “fully address the competition concerns identified by the Commission and represent a significant improvement for cloud gaming as compared to the current situation.”

Its investigation initially found that the acquisition could “harm competition (i) in the distribution of console and PC video games, including multi-game subscription services and cloud game streaming services; and (ii) in the supply of PC operating systems.” While an in-depth investigation revealed that Microsoft wouldn’t harm other competing consoles and multi-game subscription services, it did confirm that it could “harm competition in the distribution of games via cloud game streaming services,” while “its position in the market for PC operating systems would be strengthened.”

However, it ultimately noted the following:

Microsoft ultimately offered two commitments for a ten-year duration – a free license in the EEA that would allow players to stream via any service of their choice “all current and future Activision Blizzard PC and console games for which they have a license.” It would also provide a free license to cloud game streaming services for the streaming of the company’s PC and console games to players based in the EEA.

“Today, Activision Blizzard does not license its games to cloud game streaming services, nor stream the games itself. These licenses will ensure