UK Officially Approves Microsoft's Activision Blizzard Acquisition - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 13 October 2023 / 4,163 Views
The UK regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), has officially approved Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition.
"In August this year Microsoft made a concession that would see Ubisoft, instead of Microsoft, buy Activision’s cloud gaming rights," said the CMA. "This new deal will put the cloud streaming rights (outside the EEA) for all of Activision’s PC and console content produced over the next 15 years in the hands of a strong and independent competitor with ambitious plans to offer new ways of accessing that content.
"As a result of this concession, the CMA agreed to look afresh at the deal and launched a new investigation in August. That investigation has completed today with the CMA clearing this narrower transaction.
The new deal will stop Microsoft from locking up competition in cloud gaming as this market takes off, preserving competitive prices and services for UK cloud gaming customers. It will allow Ubisoft to offer Activision’s content under any business model, including through multigame subscription services. It will also help to ensure that cloud gaming providers will be able to use non-Windows operating systems for Activision content, reducing costs and increasing efficiency."
The acquisition has now been approved in the UK, New Zealand, Turkey, South Africa, South Korea, China, the European Union, Ukraine, Japan, Chile, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Serbia. Microsoft also won its case against the FTC in the US, which was trying to block the deal.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Well gamepass is rigth now the best service of the world, cheap and full of games wow!
There was no way MS valued Cloud Streaming more so than this deal and as such they were always going to be willing to make necessary's concession for the purchase to happen.
The CMA only saved face when they found themselves unable to defend their own position. There's nothing in their extracted concession that is better for the industry than the concession EU extracted form MS back in April. Worst, now instead of obtaining a streaming license for free UK cloud streaming provider have to buy license from Ubisoft. But hey the CMA needed to display some trophy to hide the fact they acted in an anti big-tech manner instead of doing their actual job when they should have.
"IIt will allow Ubisoft to offer Activision’s content under any business model, "
Next in the MS takeover line: Ubisoft...
So we were only waiting for UK the final nail in the coffin!?
Honestly although I don't like MS' buying spree, especially of Bethesda... I'm actually excited to see them take reigns of Activision and hopefully give theirs IPs some new life. Spyro 4 please
Finally its over. This was crazy.
Onto the next purchase.
the killer would be if they purchased Rock*
Only smaller, individual devs for the foreseeable future I imagine; the difficulties they've had closing this deal with regulators will make another major purchase that much harder to get through, especially if it happens in the short term.
More than likely, if ABK don't provide with adequate boost to Gamepass Offering nothing will and it's unlike that, if it does provide an adequate boost, MS could expect linear growth with another such purchase anyway.
And like you said regulator will make it harder and harder anyway.
So they'll more than likely revert to making targeted acquisition that can cover missing offerings from now on rather than using records busting purchases short/mid term.
I would like them to target some IPS for acquisition though, there's a few associated with XBOX that may make ideal target like Dead Rising. Would love MS to purchase this IP from Capcom and reboot it.
CMA only technically passed the deal. It was the CAT who forced them into it. And if it wasn’t for the CAT, the CMA would still be blocking this deal.
To see the CMA calling this deal as only now competitive & pro consumer when they still factually want to block this deal….is a grotesque PR sham.
CMA should be facing criminal prosecution. They abused their power ( a crime ) to favour a monopoly - by their standards of not including Nintendo ( a crime ) so to be anti-competitive & anti consumer ( illegal ) and wasting millions of dollars doing it ( illegal ). Also lied to a judge many times - also illegal/ a crime……when are the arrests going to happen for the CMA?
someone at CMA is patting themselves on they back and starring in the mirror. (im the one who got more)
