The European Commissions has officially given the green light of approval to Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Microsoft must however comply with a number of commitments outlined by the EU regulator in regards to cloud gaming.
In its findings, the European Commission found that the buyout — worth a staggering $69 billion — would not harm rival consoles and multi-game subscription series. However, its investigation determined it could harm competition in the distribution of games in cloud streaming series and in the supply of PC operating systems.
These licenses will ensure that gamers that have purchased one or more Activision games on a PC or console store, or that have subscribed to a multi-game subscription service that includes Activision games, have the right to stream those games with any cloud game streaming service of their choice and play them on any device using any operating system.
The commitments fully address the competition concerns identified by the Commission and represent a significant improvement for cloud gaming as compared to the current situation.
The Xbox format holder has issued the following licensing commitments in order to address these concerns.
- A free license to consumers in the EEA that would allow them to stream, via any cloud game streaming services of their choice, all current and future Activision Blizzard PC and console games for which they have a license.
- A corresponding free license to cloud game streaming service providers to allow EEA-based gamers to stream any Activision Blizzard’s PC and console games.
This is obviously a big step in the right direction for Microsoft after the deal was blocked in the UK by the country’s regulator. The hardware manufacturer is in the process of contesting the decision, although last week it emerged that the CMA has since imposed further restrictions on both companies.
[Source – VGC]