The EU approves Microsoft's $68.7 billion Activision Blizzard takeover

engadget.com:

Microsoft has overcome a significant hurdle in its attempt to buy Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. As expected, the European Union has rubberstamped the acquisition. The European Commission (the EU's executive arm) said Microsoft will have to ensure full compliance with the commitments it has made to offer its games on other platforms, particularly cloud gaming services.

Activision does not yet offer its titles on cloud gaming services. EC regulators determined that the game streaming market is relatively small as things stand and having Activision games available on cloud platforms could help it to grow. Were Microsoft to offer Activision games exclusively on its own cloud service, that could have impaired competition, the EU said. 

Microsoft has signed 10-year deals with Nintendo and cloud gaming services such as NVIDIA GeForce Now and Boosteroid to make its own games and Activision's available on them. As such, regulators said Microsoft's commitments "fully address the competition concerns identified by the Commission and represent a significant improvement for cloud gaming as compared to the current situation." 

"Video games attract billions of users all over the world. In such a fast-growing and dynamic industry, it is crucial to protect competition and innovation. Our decision represents an important step in this direction, by bringing Activision’s popular games to many more devices and consumers than before thanks to cloud game streaming," the EC's competition chief Margrethe Vestager said. "The commitments offered by Microsoft will enable for the first time the streaming of such games in any cloud game streaming services, enhancing competition and opportunities for growth."

Great deals on consumer electronics