It’s been more than a year since Xbox announced its proposed purchase of Activision Blizzard, but it seems like the deal could finally clear a significant hurdle next week. According to sources for Reuters, the European Commission is expected to announce that the deal has been cleared on May 15th. Microsoft has reportedly satisfied the EU’s reservations with the purchase, which mostly boiled down to the Call of Duty franchise and cloud gaming. Since the proposed purchase of Activision Blizzard was announced, Microsoft has made deals to keep Call of Duty on various platforms, and signed contracts with various cloud gaming services, including Nvidia and Boosteroid.
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While the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority was similarly satisfied with Microsoft’s Call of Duty deals, the group ruled against the purchase last month over concerns related to cloud gaming. The CMA argued that the purchase would hurt other cloud gaming companies. This resulted in huge pushback from Nvidia and Boosteroid, two of the biggest companies involved in cloud gaming. Both companies argued that they would actually stand to benefit from the deal, as would cloud gaming in general. If the EU truly does clear the deal to go through as expected, it will be interesting to see if the UK’s CMA reverses its decision.
The purchase of Activision Blizzard has been a major source of controversy since it was first announced. One of the biggest arguments against the deal is that it could hurt competition in the video game industry. Microsoft has argued that the company is currently in third place behind Nintendo and PlayStation in terms of market share, and the purchase of Activision Blizzard would not change that. Microsoft has signed a contract with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo platforms for at least 10 years should the purchase go through, and offered a similar deal for PlayStation. However, PlayStation has fought hard against the deal’s approval, and has refused to sign the contract.
With the US and UK not having agreed to the deal, it’s still going to be a while before we know whether Xbox will become the owner of Activision Blizzard. However, if the EU does clear the deal on May 15th, a resolution might finally be in sight!
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