Microsoft has finally fulfilled the deal of acquiring Activision Blizzard for $69 billion (equivalent to £54 billion), this officially marks the end of the revolutionary tech deal.

World-renowned gaming franchises (formally apart of Activision Blizzard), such as “Overwatch,” “Call of Duty,” and “Warcraft” have now been assimilated into Microsoft.

This comes after nearly 2 years of disputes surrounding the effect that the acquisition would have on competition within the cloud gaming market. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) officially gave their approval of the deal on Friday 13^th October 2023, after they initially blocked the biggest deal in tech history. The CEO of Activision Blizzard, Bobby Kotick has stated that he is “fully committed to helping with the transition” and will stay in his tenure until the end of the year.

Initially, there was apprehension about the deal and the effect that it would have. The CMA prohibited Microsoft’s first proposed merger over concerns that it would lead to the “substantial lessening of competition” causing “adverse effects” within the cloud gaming market. S.41 of the Enterprise Act 2002 allowed the CMA to take action to prevent this from occurring. Industry rivals such as Sony and Ubisoft were also sceptical and concerned that it would allow Microsoft to have unprecedented dominance in cloud gaming. However, a pivotal clause within the deal prevents Activision games being exclusive to Xbox. Microsoft has agreed to a 15-year deal that will hand distribution rights to Ubisoft. The compromise prompted the CMA to accept the revised deal and join the EU’s approval in allowing the acquisition.

Despite this, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is persisting with its disapproval of the deal, this may be a challenging task due to historical legal precedent that heavily favours Microsoft.

Nonetheless, Microsoft’s CEO of the Xbox division, Phil Spencer makes clear to the avid gamer that “whether you play on Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, PC or mobile, you are welcome here – and will remain welcome, even if Xbox isn’t where you play your favourite franchise.” This helps to reassure those beyond the Xbox ecosystem that they will not be deprived of their favourite franchises that were once owned by Activision Blizzard.

The deal has also paved the way for Microsoft to enter the mobile gaming industry, as they now acquire Activision’s popular games, such as, Candy Crush Saga which has reached over $20 Billion in profit as of September 2023. The long-term effects of the deal seem particularly promising, enabling Microsoft to adopt a strong position within the gaming industry against their eager competitors. It will also allow Xbox Game Pass to prosper, as they now plan to add Activision’s games to this platform. In 2022, they missed their growth target for Xbox Game Pass for the second time running. This deal may help to remedy such failures and pave the way for success.

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