It sounds like Microsoft is getting closer to winning the Activision Blizzard battle in Europe, as Reuters is reporting today that the European Commission is not expected to request that Microsoft sells assets in order to complete the deal.
In other words, the expectation is that the EU regulator will be willing to pass the acquisition following Microsoft's offer of licensing deals to rivals. Notably, Microsoft recently gave 10-year Call of Duty commitments to Sony, Nintendo and Valve, while NVIDIA also received a GeForce Now deal of its own.
Here's a bit of what Microsoft had to say in response to the outlet today:
"[Microsoft is] committed to offering effective and easily enforceable solutions that address the European Commission's concerns."
"Our commitment to grant long term 100% equal access to Call of Duty to Sony, Steam, NVIDIA and others preserves the deal's benefits to gamers and developers and increases competition in the market."
Interestingly, a source at Reuters mentioned that Microsoft may also have to offer behavioural remedies to concerned parties other than Sony in order to secure the EU's approval, noting that "such remedies typically refer to the future conduct of the merged company".
Things seem to be looking up for the Activision Blizzard acquisition in Europe, then, although we'll still need to keep waiting until late April until we find out a verdict. The current EU deadline is set for April 25th, 2023.