The CMA has provisionally approved Microsoft's restructured Activision Blizzard deal
UK regulator the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has provisionally approved Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
The CMA blocked Microsoft's original proposal, prompting the tech giant to submit a restructured deal to address the regulator's cloud gaming concerns.
Those remedies included the transfer of Activision Blizzard's cloud gaming rights to French publisher Ubisoft for the next 15 years, preventing Microsoft from releasing Activision Blizzard titles exclusively on its own cloud streaming platforms.
Microsoft said the move would allow it to pitch a "substantially different transaction" at the CMA compared to the original proposal it submitted in 2022.
The CMA seems to agree, with the regulator suggesting Ubisoft will now replicate the role that Activision would have occupied in the cloud market as an independent player, going some way to address its initial misgivings.
"In contrast to the original deal, Microsoft will no longer control cloud gaming rights for Activision’s content, so would not be in a position to limit access to Activision's key content to its own cloud gaming service or to withhold those games from rivals," wrote the CMA in a press release.
"Unlike the remedies the CMA previously rejected, Ubisoft will be free to offer Activision's games both directly to consumers and to all cloud gaming service providers however it chooses, including for buy-to-play or multigame subscription services, or any new model for providing content that might emerge as the market develops.
"The deal with Ubisoft also requires Microsoft to port Activision games to operating systems other than Windows and support game emulators when requested, addressing the other main shortcoming with the previous remedies
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