Last April, Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard was dealt a heavy blow, after the Competition and Markets Authority rejected the deal due to the implications of cloud games, which is a reason that Microsoft saw as not serious, and therefore the company decided to make greater pledges to reassure everyone, and it seems that Those pledges made by the tech giant are bringing the major acquisition deal back to life.
Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which cost the company’s coffers $68.7 billion, was officially approved by the European Commission, and the European Commission summarized that the deal could pass peacefully thanks to Microsoft’s commitments and pledges regarding cloud games.
The European Commission found that Microsoft would have no incentive to refuse to distribute Activision games to Sony and that even if Microsoft decided to pull Activision games from PlayStation devices, it would not significantly harm competition in the console market, but the European Commission is like the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority They found that the acquisition could harm competition around PC and console game distribution through cloud gaming services.
The European Commission has therefore outlined remedies to allow the deal to move forward through 10-year licensing deals that Microsoft has already offered to competitors, including a free license for EU consumers that would allow them to stream on any cloud game streaming services of their choice for all Activision Blizzard games for PC Current or future generation and PC, cloud service providers will also be granted a free license to broadcast these games in the EU markets.
Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice President for Competition Policy at the European Commission, said:
Our decision represents an important step in that direction, bringing popular Activision games to more devices and consumers than ever before thanks to cloud game streaming. The commitments made by Microsoft will enable such games to be streamed for the first time on any cloud game streaming services, boosting competition and growth opportunities.
Microsoft has spent the past few months trying to address regulators’ concerns about cloud gaming. The software and tech giant has signed cloud gaming deals with Boosteroid, Ubitus, and Nvidia to allow Xbox and PC games to be played on their cloud gaming services, it was announced. announced a similar deal with Nintendo last December, and all of these 10-year deals also include access to the Call of Duty series and other Activision Blizzard games if the deal is approved by regulators.
