Brussels has just given the go-ahead for the purchase of the video game publisher Activision Blizzard by Microsoft. The European Commission has given the green light to the operation – valued at 68,700 million dollars – after the computer giant has promised to implement different measures to prevent this acquisition from giving it a competitive advantage in the video game market.
Despite the fact that Europe has given its approval to the purchase, Microsoft still has to convince the British and American regulators, something that will not be easy and that still prevents this operation – the largest in the history of entertainment – ​​from taking place. .
The EC approval of the purchase comes three months after a delegation of Microsoft executives, including its president Brad Smith, traveled to Brussels to try to convince antitrust officials of the European Union about the benefits that this operation.
Coinciding with that non-public hearing, the Redmonds announced a series of commitments aimed at satisfying buyout-reluctant regulatory bodies, including their willingness to bring the popular Call of Duty (owned by Activion Blizzard) to Nintendo, Nvidia and other platforms for at least ten years.
However, one of the main concerns of the European regulators did not have so much to do with Call of Duty as with the dominant position that this operation could give Microsoft in the field of video games in the cloud, an area in which the American company has been going for months. announced compensatory measures. Judging by the latest response from Brussels, it seems that these announcements have ended up having the desired effect.
“The commitments [announced by Microsoft] fully address the competition concerns identified by the Commission and represent a significant improvement for cloud gaming compared to the current situation,†the Brussels press release states regarding its concern over the game in the cloud
Microsoft President Brad Smith was quick to react to the news via Twitter: “The European Commission has required Microsoft to automatically license popular Activision Blizzard games to competing cloud gaming services. This It will apply globally and will allow millions of consumers around the world to play these games on whatever device they choose.”
The news of the approval of the purchase by the European Commission has come three weeks after the United Kingdom, through the CMA (Competition and Markets Authority), blocked it on the grounds that it is a threat to the industry and consumers. , especially in the field of video games in the cloud. A blockade that, for its part, Microsoft has announced that it will appeal.
For its part, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of the United States filed a lawsuit last December arguing that it could harm competition and users. Right now, this case is still in its documentary phase and has an evidentiary hearing scheduled for August 2.
Both organizations are preventing Microsoft from achieving its goal of taking over the giant Activsion Blizzard, let us remember that in addition to the aforementioned Call of Duty it has other well-known franchises such as World of Warcraft, Diablo or Candy Crush.
The video game company that has shown the strongest opposition to this operation is the Japanese Sony, manufacturer of the PlayStation console. Since the purchase was announced in January of last year, it has exerted frontal opposition, and at the center of its concerns is that Call of Duty, one of the best-selling franchises of the last two decades, ends up being exclusive to Xbox.
The European Commission has referred to this in its latest statement, where they state that “Microsoft would have no incentive to refuse to distribute Activision games to Sony, which is the main distributor of console games in the world, included in the European Economic Area, where there are four Sony PlayStation consoles for every Microsoft Xbox console purchased by gamers. Microsoft would have strong incentives to continue distributing Activision games through a device as popular as the Sony PlayStation.”
The announcement of Microsoft’s intention to purchase Activision Blizzard was announced at the beginning of 2022 and, since then, it has been the topic that has focused today in the video game industry. More than a year later, it is still far from over.
