THEREGULATORSin the UK have acquiesced,
and the deal to buy Activision Blizzard is on. The chief concern for regulators was always that Microsoft would have too tight a grip on cloud gaming. More specifically, it would be able to make Call of Duty (the fourth largest game franchise in history) exclusive to the Xbox and Windows.
The competition regulators did squeeze concessions out of Microsoft. First, it had to agree to keep Call of Duty available on PlayStation for ten years. Also, the UK’s regulators made the company sell exclusive worldwide rights and nonexlusive rights for the European Economic Area to Ubisoft for the next 15 years. According to Microsoft’s vice chairman, Brad Smith, this “addresses the concerns about the impact of the proposed acquisition on cloud game streaming”. At least all parties are now being polite.