EU approves Activision Blizzard acquisition by Microsoft

The rumors of the previous days have been confirmed and the long-lasting deal for the acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion by Microsoft is getting closer and closer to its successful completion. The European Union has given the green light, as it has deemed that Microsoft is sincere in its intentions to distribute Activision Blizzard's games on competing platforms, while also considering that even if it decides to withdraw them from PlayStation in the future, then no serious harm will be done to competition.

The turning point for the positive decision was the deals Microsoft made in the past few months with several competitors for 10-year distribution of Activision Blizzard games on their platforms, as well as on cloud gaming services (see Nintendo, Nvidia).

Equally important was Microsoft's intention to follow the EU directive for default distribution of games on cloud gaming services in order to allow gamers in European countries to have the freedom to choose any service they want without restrictions.

In fact, Microsoft has announced through its chairman, Brad Smith, that it intends to provide the same option globally in an attempt to convince both the UK CMA to change its negative decision and the other regulators reviewing the acquisition file, the most important of all being the FTC in the US.

It is worth noting that so far Brazil, EU, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Chile, Japan and Serbia have approved Activision Blizzard's acquisition, while decisions from the US, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and China are pending, as is an appeal filed by Microsoft to overturn the CMA's decision.