A new report from Reuters says that European Union regulators will likely allow the $69 billion Microsoft-Activision deal to pass without requiring concessions. The report comes from anonymous sources Reuters says are familiar with the matter, just a few weeks after the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority said Microsoft would have to sell parts of the business for the deal to proceed – an action Microsoft president Brad Smith called unfeasible and impractical.
Reuters’ sources say Microsoft’s commitment to providing Call of Duty on Nintendo platforms and all Xbox Game Pass cloud games on Nvidia’s GeForce Now platform helped convince the EU commission that the deal would have no substantial, negative effect on competition in the games space.
The EU declined to comment to Reuters, though it and the U.K. CMA are expected to issue their final reports in the next two months. Both of Microsoft’s intended partnerships address key concerns that regulatory bodies raised over the deal, namely access to Activision Blizzard’s most lucrative property and the possible harm such a deal could cause in the cloud gaming space.
The CMA, in its original report from February, said providing games built for PC and more powerful consoles to Nintendo would only cost more money for developers and result in inferior products.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission still has an ongoing lawsuit against Microsoft intended to halt the deal’s progress and has yet to comment on Microsoft’s recent announcements with Nintendo and Nvidia.
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF
