Microsoft to make ‘last-ditch’ effort to gain EU approval of Activision Blizzard deal

It is no secret that Microsoft's planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard is on shaky ground, with regulators seemingly wholeheartedly buying into Sony's objections to the deal, while also having concerns about the future of the cloud gaming market. According to a report this week, Microsoft is now preparing its ‘last-ditch' effort to get the EU on board. 

According to sources speaking with Reuters (via Eurogamer), Microsoft is set to meet with EU regulators on the 21st of February, during which it will make its final offer on remedies to get the deal approved. These remedies will likely include guaranteed multiplatform releases and feature parity for Call of Duty across all platforms, as well as an offer to bring certain games to competing subscription services at the same time as Game Pass.

As far as cloud gaming goes, we're unsure what approach Microsoft will take here. The cloud gaming market is still incredibly small, but if Microsoft can offer release parity on competing services alongside its own, then that might help persuade regulators. The real issue then comes down to contract lengths. Microsoft's most recent offer was a ten-year deal and assuming Call of Duty is still shipping in ten years' time, that deal would need to be renewed.

The UK's CMA recently published some of their proposed concessions to approve the deal, one of which involved divesting in portions of the Activision business. This feels like a deal-breaker on Microsoft's end, so if that ends up becoming a sticking point here, then the deal will likely be scrapped.

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KitGuru Says: We still don't know how much Microsoft will have to give up in order to get this deal approved by regulators. As with any negotiation, there is a breaking point, and if regulators are keen on forcing Microsoft to divest in big portions of Activision's business, then I don't think this deal ever completes. 

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