The Microsoft Activision Blizzard deal was approved today in South Korea, bringing Microsoft a step closer to finally acquiring the developer of games such as Call of Duty, Overwatch, Diablo, and many others.
As reported today by Korea JoongAng Daily, South Korea Fair Trade Commission unconditionally approved the deal, saying that the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft will not harm the competition in the console gaming market due to the low market share of the console games distributed by the two publishers.
As time passes, more and more market regulators are approving the Microsoft Activision Blizzard deal, leaving the UK’s CMA as the only one that did not approve the deal so far. The regulator blocked the deal due to concerns regarding the cloud gaming market, saying that the company would have reason to make Activision Blizzard games exclusive to its cloud services, which are already in a strong position. As Activision Blizzard develops and publishes some extremely popular games, the CMA finds these titles to be important to cloud gaming services, and allowing the merger would harm other cloud gaming competitors.
The European Union shared none of the CMA’s concerns regarding the Microsoft Activision Blizzard deal, as the Commission approved the deal earlier this month. With the CMA standing alone on this matter and Microsoft having appealed the decision, it will be very interesting to see how the situation will develop in the coming weeks.
