One of the most drawn-out tales in videogames is nearly at an end as UK approval clears the way for Microsoft/Activision deal to close

pcgamer.com:

And just like that, our shared 21-month slog is over. Long live our new, possibly lifelong slog. In a press release today, titled «Microsoft concession a gamechanger that will promote competition,» the UK's Competition and Market Authority (CMA) has announced that it's approving Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, reversing its April decision to block the deal and clearing the way for the deal to close in the very near future.

Back in April, the CMA's decision to block the deal revolved around concerns that the acquisition would hand Microsoft too much control over the cloud gaming sector, which the CMA reckons will become an increasingly big deal in the years to come.

But that's all water under the bridge now. In its statement, the CMA said that Microsoft's concession on the cloud gaming front—licensing out the cloud streaming rights for Activision games to Ubisoft—«will stop Microsoft from locking up competition in cloud gaming as this market takes off» and «allow Ubisoft to offer Activision's content under any business model, including through multigame subscription services.» The CMA also says that the new offer from Microsoft will prevent cloud gaming from getting locked up behind Windows PCs.

Of all the national regulators who examined the Microsoft/Activision deal, the CMA was the only one to issue a rejection (although the US Federal Trade Commission had a damn good try at stopping it from closing, and has reopened its administrative case against the merger even if it can't prevent that closure). That decision earned it quite a lot of heat from politicians and executives both. 

Activision boss Bobby Kotick accused the CMA of lacking «independent thought» and foretold economic doom for the