EU reportedly unlikely to demand Activision Blizzard split from Microsoft

EU Commission seems to react positively to Nintendo, NVIDIA deals

Marco Wutz | Mar 2, 2023

EU reportedly unlikely to demand Activision Blizzard split from Microsoft /

The EU’s market regulators are likely satisfied with Microsoft’s recent deals with Nintendo and NVIDIA about guaranteeing these competitors access to video games from Activision Blizzard after the proposed $69 billion acquisition of the publisher.

This is according to a Reuters report citing three sources familiar with the matter, who also said that the EU is unlikely to follow the UK’s Competition and Market Authority (CMA) into demanding that Microsoft sell off parts of Activision Blizzard to gain approval for the deal. Microsoft has already rejected taking such a measure.

Finally some good news for Microsoft and Xbox regarding the Activision Blizzard takeover / Microsoft

Microsoft recently addressed red flags raised by the EU Commission at a hearing in Brussels, Belgium, which included representatives from Sony, Activision Blizzard, and other interested parties. While Sony is still being obstructive and hopes to stop the entire deal, it seems like the Xbox maker’s recent measures made a positive impression on the EU Commission.

Microsoft has signed contracts with both Nintendo and NVIDIA, guaranteeing them to make not only Activision Blizzard games like Call of Duty available for their platforms in equal terms as Xbox, but in the case of NVIDIA also other titles from the company’s catalog.

This is the second piece of good news coming out for Microsoft regarding the ongoing battle around the merger today. Earlier, the FTC granted a majority of Microsoft’s subpoena requests for internal documents from Sony to shore up its legal defense ahead of a trial. Microsoft will have access to documents regarding all of Sony’s exclusivity deals since 2019.

The EU also moved its deadline for a final decision about the takeover back by ten days to April 25, 2023. This is one day earlier than the CMA’s final report about the matter is expected to be released.

Published Mar 2, 2023

MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg