The UK’s CMA played a key role in Microsoft’s plans to acquire Activision Blizzard’s King. As you may recall, despite previous indications to the contrary, the UK market regulator opposed Microsoft’s ability to complete the operation at the end of April. This was a major setback because in this way a new red light was added to the one already proposed by the US FTC.

The CMA’s decision was due, as they stated This operation could threaten the future of cloud gaming, an argument that has even been discussed by companies in the sector that Microsoft has offered to add its games (and of course Activision Blizzard King games if the purchase is completed) to their catalogs. At that point the operation seemed closer to failure than to fruition.

With the arrival of summer, however, there was a sudden turn of events, as if in a matter of days The US court system did not support the FTC’s plans and the CMA was open to delaying the court route opened by Microsoft in the UK to seek changes to the buying operation that would ease the regulator’s concerns about the purchase’s impact on the cloud gaming market. So with better prospects, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard agreed to extend the deadline they originally set for the completion of the operation by three months.

They have been working under the radar of stakeholders ever since and as a result The CMA has today updated its position on Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard and provisionally approved it. Together with the publication of this decision, the regulator has started a consultation period that will last until October 6, the date when the final approval will probably take place.

Microsoft offered to waive the CMA sale of rights to use Activision Blizzard’s cloud games to Ubisoft, a measure that the regulator is considering will later prevent those from Redmond from choosing to stay with them exclusively for their cloud gaming services, be it the current Xbox Cloud or others that may see the light of day in the future. In this regard, let’s recall Microsoft’s plans to bring computer games to the cloud.

This way, barring very unlikely surprises, we already know that Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard King will be completed. between October 6 and 18, because the latter is the deadline set after the extension of the deadline agreed by the parties. In other words, in less than four weeks, the soap opera that began just after the 2022 inauguration will end.