Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard removes major obstacles, and the UK says it will not affect competition in the game console field.

Thanks to CTOnews.com netizen Guohei 001 for the clue delivery! Beijing time on the evening of March 24, it is reported that the British antitrust regulator "Competition and Market Administration" (CMA) said today that Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard will not hurt competition in the game console market. Clearly, the decision removed a major obstacle to the approval of the deal.

CMA in the UK said today that Microsoft's exclusive launch of the call of Duty (Call of Duty) game on its Xbox console makes no financial sense. Instead, Microsoft has enough motivation to continue to offer the game on Sony's PlayStation console.

CMA has previously said Activision Blizzard's flagship game call of Duty is important in promoting competition between consoles and is worried that Microsoft will offer the game exclusively to its own Xbox console, thus weakening competition in the market. To address these concerns, Microsoft later provided "call of Duty" licenses to Sony and other companies.

Today, while there is no longer concern that the deal will affect competition in the console market, CMA said it was still assessing the impact of the deal on the cloud gaming market. CMA also said that the final results of the evaluation are expected to be completed by the April 26 deadline.

On CMA's decision today, a Microsoft spokesman said: "We look forward to working with CMA to resolve any outstanding issues."

In January last year, Microsoft announced the acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $69 billion. When the deal is completed, Microsoft will become the third highest revenue gaming company in the world, after Tencent and Sony. Subsequently, a number of regulators around the world launched investigations into the deal.