Boss fight cleared: Europe approves Microsoft's Activision takeover

It's another one down, two more major hurdles to jump for Microsoft in its quest to absorb video game maker Activision Blizzard, as the EU officially gave its blessing to the $68.7 billion corporate takeover on Monday.  The assent was expected but unconfirmed for months. According to the European Commission's official …

[druck]

Who expects Microsoft to play fair?

Isn't 40 years of their past conduct, and deliberate violations of other anti-trust agreements, evidence enough for the EU?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Who expects Microsoft to play fair?

So the E.U. has bought Microsofts proposals? Talk about mugs or what. The Microsoft people will be drinking a toast to their gullibility.

Memo to the E.U. Microsoft will already have worked out how to get around those proposals in a year or two. You need yours heads testing if you ask me. There is more chance of there being a cow on the moon than Microsoft keeping it"s word.

[Omnipresent]

Re: Who expects Microsoft to play fair?

Joke's on Europe. They just forced all of Europe onto Microsofts subscription gaming cloud.

[Anonymous Coward]

Quote: 'Beyond simply not posing a threat, the EC said that Microsoft's concessions "represent a significant improvement for cloud gaming as compared to the current situation," so congratulations to Microsoft for getting someone to bite that hook - and hard, based on the EC's explanation of its reasoning.'

Laughed at that part. This sets the EC's reputation on mergers.

[Pascal Monett]

This sucks

Borkzilla has an established history of fucking up everything it sinks its teeth into.

Latest example : GitHub.

Now it's going to be Activision, with Blizzard in tow.

I fear the consequences in the (not too) long run. Nothing good will come of this for gamers.

[BrownishMonstr]

Fair ruling, I agree

I think there are a few things the EC needed to address:

1) Is this going to allow XBOX to gain greater dominance against Nintendo and Sony?

XBOX is third in sales behind Sony and Nintendo and is very unlikely to close the gap by much.

2) Is XBOX going to gain greater dominance on Windows over competitors?

This is a possibility.

3) Is Microsoft going to gain an uncompetitive advantage on cloud gaming?

Cloud gaming is too soon to tell, but very few competitors have invested much in it. Google have abandoned Stadia, too, so GeForce Now seems to be the only other competitor. Microsoft has promised a ten-year deal to other cloud gaming providers, so the competitors see this has helping them. Microsoft could abuse its position as a cloud provider, but then the EC are going to start looking into Azure, funnily enough.

[NoneSuch]

"While the approval hinges on Microsoft's compliance with the measures it offered up in the negotiations,"

And we all know how Microsoft adheres to these types of agreements long term, right? Right?