Xbox's Activision Blizzard Deal Approved By South Korean FTC

The more the approvals keep coming from other regulators, the more the CMA and FTC look irrational and/or clueless.

It's good news. I really want the deal to go through. I have my doubts, but I hope the deal goes through eventually world wide. I think xbox needs it. Playstation will always have thier cinematic movie style A+ games. That's what they specialize in, and that's what the industry accepted as what the highest level of game is. Xbox succeeds at other types of games, multi-player, 3rd party, indie, smaller titles, innovative.

Since the industry overall agrees with Sony that the "movie" games are what the greatest games are...then in order for Xbox to still do well, it needs something like the Activision deal. With that Xbox won't be shut out. So I hope it works out with the deal.

Something I can't get my head around - so what happens if approval gets a majority vote, does that mean all's a go, or is it a case of those who voted against (ie UK at the moment) are the ones where any perks from the deal doesn't apply to that country??

@ironcrow86 It can't go through unless the CMA says yes. I don't know why all these countries are bothering to approve it when the CMA has said no.

@ironcrow86 All it means is that in the UK, they would likely need to keep ABK as a 'shell' company to publish ABK games in the UK and not allow them to put their games on Game Pass.

The CMA isn't that 'powerful' they can block 2 US companies from 'Merging' - just not allow them to operate in the UK as 'one' Company. It can separate Game Pass UK from Game Pass elsewhere, either by creating a separate entity in the UK that can easily be monitored by the CMA or by an appointed third party, or by merely managing the UK business separately.

Point is, it only affects them in the UK. The rest of the world all agree the deal is not anti-competitive in ANY sector, and in most cases, actually is making Xbox much more Competitive - thereby increasing 'competition', not being 'anti-competitive'. Therefore the UK alone can't 'block' the deal completely, but can make it 'difficult' for MS in the UK and have a big impact on UK gamers...

I hope the UK gets a good telling off for being clueless and they then approve the deal

Ok thanks guys...think I'm a bit clearer - by sounds of it - good or bad - the UK could end being screwed 😐

"May Promote Competition"

That's doesn't sound convincing, surely it would of been better to say "will" instead.

@ironcrow86 it will be fine if UK is separate ,chances are we will be able to do what we do now with new Zealand games and switch region or use a VPN
And for those who say nooooo Microsoft will stop that .....with the new Zealand time zone thing the solution was launch a game worldwide at the same time when they could have just stopped the region changing easy enough and if the CMA catch on to this and say stop it microsoft will of course argue and that could take a hell of a while

@BAMozzy I think you're underestimating the CMA, they forced Facebook to sell Giphy just last week after numerous appeals had been exhausted.

Good, hopefully it'll all be over soon!

I think once the FTC lose their Court case, that will leave the CMA standing alone in blocking the deal. At that point, I would fully expect them to reverse their decision. That might happen as a result of the Microsoft appeal, or it might happen before. Personally, I suspect that it will happen before, and that the CMA will say they have managed to squeeze just a few more concessions out of Microsoft that will then enable them to save face and approve the deal. I doubt that the CMA will want to be the only representative of a Country in the entire World that is refusing to approve the acquisition, and as each skittle of approval falls, I cannot see them wanting to be the only one left standing at the end.

Currently, I think that the CMA are doing the bidding of the CMA (and potentially even Sony), but once the solidarity of the FTC falls by the wayside, the CMA will cave, and in doing so, will try to paint themselves as the Good Guys, trying to ensure tough regulations are observed. Yeah right.

It is only a matter time...

CMA are a global organisation, it only has power over the UK. Nadella even indicated that he would, could, end up leaving certain content out of the UK. Which ironically would be awful for the British consumer.

I suspect FTC have a hand at this. The UK are trying to ascertain a smidget of power in order to try and prove itself a main player on the world stage but truth be told, it's not.

The deal will go through. UK will get a lesser version of gamepass. Maybe xbox will even pull CoD out entirely, which would enrage Sony.

People overestimate the CMA. Financial Times, the government and major businesses are all openly calling CMA out. Its clearly corrupt.

@Kevw2006 Not at all. I am just saying that the CMA themselves cannot prevent the deal from passing and MS have 'options' available to them - such as I mentioned.

The UK could be a very different Market from the rest of the world for ABK and MS, specifically in the 'Cloud' sector. ABK could 'remain' as a separate business in the UK for example.

Facebook may feel that 'Giphy' isn't worth the effort, worth fighting for etc and not important to their 'long term'. Also I don't recall the CMA being questioned by their own Government, their logic/reasoning being so absurd and illogical, not based on 'fact', but conjecture and hypotheticals, blocked by an ex Sony Lawyer...

@Snake_V5 You clueless my guy

@Snake_V5 MS will do this, ( I already said this) will pull out ABK games on UK but on PS only except Xbox.

@Kaloudz I need to watch it

@BAMozzy I feel that there is a fair possibility, one worth entertaining, that the CAT does not even send the case back to the CMA. What would be the point? The CMA made up details to strengthen their case where needed. They might just block it again, since they don't need to use reason or valid data, apparently. The CMA is wasting everyone's time, energy, and money. So, I don't think it is entirely crazy to think the CAT may just toss out their decision.

@Snake_V5 this deal is about the merger of the companies. If the deal doesn’t go through in the uk, they can move the offices and workforce to the EU instead. And leave the UK all together.

Either the CMA will cave or UK gamers will end up getting shafted in the end.

@theduckofdeath At the end of the day, It doesn't matter because the CMA cannot 'block' MS from acquiring ABK on its own and therefore the 'deal' is most certainly not 'dead' as someone keeps repeating...

There are still numerous options - like appealing against the CMA's decision and winning to pulling out of the UK and not releasing any ABK content to UK customers at all - but the CMA alone can't block the deal between 2 US companies when the rest of the world has passed the deal.