Microsoft’s bid for Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard has been given UK approval, removing a last hurdle to the biggest-ever gaming deal.
The UK’s regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), said it gave the go-ahead to after the restructured deal substantially addressed its earlier concerns.
Microsoft, who make the Xbox, announced the biggest gaming deal in history in early 2022, but the £56bn ($69bn) acquisition was blocked in April by Britain’s competition regulator.
It was concerned the US computing giant would gain too much control of the new cloud gaming market but changes have since been made to the deal.
Last month the regulator appeared to hint the deal would get the go-ahead as French game maker, Ubisoft, agreed to acquire Activision’s cloud gaming rights, rather than Microsoft.
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Microsoft announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard in January last year, but the merger has been fraught with difficulty.
“The new deal will stop Microsoft from locking up competition in cloud gaming as this market takes off, preserving competitive prices and services for UK cloud gaming customers,” the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said.
“It will also help to ensure that cloud gaming providers will be able to use non-Windows operating systems for Activision content, reducing costs and increasing efficiency.”
Cloud-based games such as Candy Crush are also owned by Activision Blizzard.
Regulators in Europe and the United States had given the green light to the merger, which had left the UK watchdog an outlier.