One down, two to go.
The absolutely massive Activison Blizzard purchase by Microsoft cleared its first major hurdle. The EU has approved of the deal going forward.
This comes a few weeks after the UK’s CMA blocked the deal, with both companies appealing the decision. While the European Commission had some concerns with the deal, they were appeased by Microsoft’s commitments in regards to problem areas, such as cloud gaming. As the Commission’s report states, Microsoft’s “commitments fully address the competition concerns identified by the Commission and represent a significant improvement for cloud gaming as compared to the current situation.”
The Commission concludes that Microsoft would be incapable of harming rival consoles or streaming services if the deal goes through though there is potential to “harm competition in the distribution of games via cloud game streaming services”, as well as strengthen their position in thew realm on computer OS’s (where they still have the lead compared to Apple).
The report also claims that there would be “no incentive” for Microsoft to refuse to publish on Sony platforms, considering PlayStation outsells Xbox four-to-one in Europe. It goes on to say that even if they did, it wouldn’t harm the market much anyway. Rather, much like the UK’s group, they were more concerned with cloud gaming platforms. And in that regard, Microsoft addressed their concerns with the following commitments:
- A free license to consumers in the EEA that would allow them to stream, via any cloud game streaming services of their choice, all current and future Activision Blizzard PC and console games for which they have a license.
- A corresponding free license to cloud game streaming service providers to allow EEA-based gamers to stream any Activision Blizzard’s PC and console games.
The Commission did collect industry data from numerous European streaming services no one has ever heard of, and they were all okay with it. Partly due to the fact that Microsoft gave all of them 10-year deals. Since the merger is conditional on those commitments being kept, and independent trustee will monitor the situation going forward.
“Video games attract billions of users all over the world. In such a fast-growing and dynamic industry, it is crucial to protect competition and innovation. Our decision represents an important step in this direction, by bringing Activision’s popular games to many more devices and consumers than before thanks to cloud game streaming.
Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President in charge of EU competition policy
Oh, and naturally, Bobby Kotick is happy.
The EC conducted an extremely thorough, deliberate process to gain a comprehensive understanding of gaming. As a result, they approved our merger with Microsoft, although they required stringent remedies to ensure robust competition in our rapidly growing industry […] We intend to meaningfully expand our investment and workforce throughout the EU, and we’re excited for the benefits our transaction brings to players in Europe and around the world.
Bobby Kotick, Activision Blizzard CEO
They now have to accomplish the same in the U.S. The downside is that they’ve currently wound up in a lawsuit with the Federal Trade Commission, which is currently in the discovery stage. They also need to appeal the decision in the UK, though their EU success may help them along there.
Source: PC Gamer
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