Very good news for Microsoft, even if it comes at a rather difficult time. The European Union regulator’s decision was undoubtedly one of the most anticipated, as it, together with the FTC’s decision, is one of those that affect a larger number of users, i.e. a large market. But since the CMA’s surprise decision, many have been waiting (we’ve been waiting) to see if Europe’s common space will follow suit, or instead change the plan for the UK regulator.

Let’s do a quick context recap and then see what the EU has to say about Microsoft’s intentions. how do you remember about a year and a half ago, Microsoft announced its plans to buy Activision-Blizzard Kingan operation with a spectacular volume, which is well evidenced by the almost $70,000 million that Redmond intends to pay to acquire one of the most important studios in the video game sector.

At the time, predictions indicated that the operation would be completed, if there was one. nihil exist regulators, until the end of 2022. However, practically from the first moment lSony’s furious response and the enormous pressure exerted by the Japanese technology on regulators has caused the situation to drag on. in a more than considerable way. Some regulators, who by the way saw Sony acquire at least three studios during this period, Bungie a few weeks after Microsoft’s announcement, Savage Game Studios in August and Ballistic Moon last February without a word. And it seems the company’s plans don’t end there.

In any case, it seemed that deep lobbying by Sony might delay the acquisition, but not prevent it. In addition, Microsoft has shown that it is paying close attention to what the regulators who have overseen the operation have indicated, in addition to actively working to mitigate concerns about possible monopolistic intentions behind the operation, as demonstrated during the recent months that we knew about a slew of 10-year deals that will bring Call of Duty and other Activision-Blizzard King titles to a plethora of platforms, from Nintendo to GeForce Now.

That, coupled with Sony’s clear dominance of the video console market, suggested that regulators would eventually allow the deal, but then came April 26, the day the UK regulator, the CMA, published its decision. blocking the operation on British soil. A decision that was surprising not so much in its meaning, but in the argument used to support it, as it stated that this acquisition could negatively affect the development of the emerging cloud gaming platform market.

That’s surprising, I say, because Activision-Blizzard games have had almost no representation on cloud gaming platforms until now. Part of its catalog was available on GeForce Now when the service was in the testing phase, but the company decided to remove it from the NVIDIA platform when it ended. ABK has never had a close relationship with cloud gaming platformsand I’m not saying that, says Antonina Baťová, head of strategic communications at Boosteroid, one of the cloud gaming platforms that reached an agreement with Microsoft and that recently expressed its deep disapproval of the CMA.

Disagreement, which is completely understandable, and which comes from a cloud gaming service that already puts us on the path that its knowledge of said market must be a little more complete and accurate than that of the UK regulator, something that my colleague Isidro already demonstrated a few months ago he quite rightly pointed out that it was nothing more than a lack of knowledge on the part of the regulators about the markets they oversee, something which, when you think about it, you can see is really unfortunate, and leading to decisions such as the one taken by the CMA which was approved only by SonyTransparent.

In these circumstances, and with many other regulators having already given the go-ahead to the operation, eyes have turned to two regulators, the US FTC, whose leadership has been questioned in recent months, and the European Union regulator, whose final decision was released today. The decision, which is summarized under the name of the communiqué: lCommission approves Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard subject to certain conditions.

The conditions mentioned by the regulator are nothing but compliance, by Microsoft, of what you have committed to over the past months, both with the regulator itself and with the companies with which it has signed contracts, which those from Redmond have already confirmed, actively and passively, which of course they plan to maintain. It is of course understandable that the EU included this comment in its statement, but we must read from this that suitable conditions are created for the acquisition.

Now, I have to admit that if there is anything that caught my eye, it is something that we can find once we start reading the statement that begins with this paragraph:

«The European Commission has approved Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard (“Activision”) under the EU Merger Regulation. Approval is subject to full compliance with the commitments offered by Microsoft. Compromises fully address competition concerns identified by the Commission and represent a significant improvement for cloud gaming over the current situation.»

The end of this first paragraph is reinforced by a point mentioned a little later:

«Even without this transaction, Activision would not give your games available multi-game subscription services, because it would cannibalize sales of individual games. Thus, the situation for third-party multi-game subscription service providers would not change after Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision.»

It is most curious that while the UK regulator believes that the acquisition would damage the future of cloud gaming platforms, the European Union comes to the exact opposite conclusion, and that this reflects a view expressed by the cloud gaming sector itself. It seems, and I’m just saying it seems The CMA has consulted with a number of directors of companies in the sector which are close to zero.

And I don’t want to leave this point without giving a quote, highlighted in the statement itself, about the result that the acquisition would have:

«Video games attract billions of users worldwide. In a fast-growing and dynamic industry, it is essential to protect competition and innovation. Our decision represents an important step in this direction, by bringing popular Activision games to more devices and consumers than ever before with cloud game streaming. Commitments offered by Microsoft will enable streaming of such games on any cloud-based game streaming service for the first time, increasing competition and growth opportunities.

Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice President Responsible for Competition Policy.”

So to summarize, it seems that driving on the left isn’t the only thing they do backwards in the UK.

As for the rest, the European Union communication also confirms that the acquisition nor will it have a negative impact on the video game and console market, as, after all, other regulators, including the CMA itself, have therefore come to the final conclusion that this operation not only does not have a negative impact on competition, but in fact would contribute decisively to it.