In January 2022, Microsoft announced its plans to acquire Activation Blizzard in a transaction valued at $68.7 billion, the largest deal in the gaming industry. The deal didn’t go exactly as planned, as regulators in the US, EU and UK opposed the acquisition. Microsoft managed to get a court injunction in the US and later received approval from EU regulators, leaving the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) as the only major obstacle against the deal .
Well, that hurdle has now been overcome as the CMA has given the green light to the deal.
The key thing is that Microsoft will hand over cloud gaming rights for Activision titles to Ubisoft, which eliminates the CMA’s biggest complaint with the deal. This means that Microsoft will not be able to license any cloud gaming rights for existing or future Activision Blizzard titles over the next 15 years. The CMA believes this will result in better competition, benefiting consumers and economic growth.
The sale of Activision’s cloud streaming rights to Ubisoft will prevent the distribution of important and popular content, including games like Call of Duty, Overwatch and World of Warcraft, from coming under Microsoft’s control in connection with cloud gaming. The restructured deal essentially addressed concerns the CMA had following its initial investigation, which concluded earlier this year.
The CMA has identified limited remaining concerns with the new agreement, but Microsoft has committed to ensuring that the terms of Activision’s sale of rights to Ubisoft are enforceable by the CMA.
The CMA has consulted on these commitments and is satisfied that this will provide the safety net necessary to ensure that this agreement is properly implemented. – CMA press release
Activision Blizzard will now become a division of Microsoft Gaming which will make Microsoft the third largest gaming company after Tencent and Sony.
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