Today, after a long list of eight delays (called time extensions), the New Zealand Commerce Commission has officially cleared Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. That makes the Pacific Ocean island country the 42nd where the deal has been approved, although technically, the Federal Trade Commission may still continue to pursue its in-house judiciary process even after being defeated in federal court following the request for a preliminary injunction.
The New Zealand regulator had previously expressed some concerns on the Activision Blizzard acquisition by Microsoft in a Statement of Issues document released on June 20th.
We are concerned that these effects may arise as a result of the merged entity either partially or fully foreclosing its rivals in cloud gaming, such as Sony or NVIDIA, from accessing certain Activision content, and in particular the game Call of Duty (CoD), to the detriment of competition in cloud gaming. We are also continuing to consider whether the Proposed Transaction would substantially lessen competition due the merged entity either partially or fully foreclosing its rivals in gaming consoles, in particular Sony, from accessing certain Activision content to the detriment of competition in the supply of video game consoles. If Activision’s game titles are sufficiently important to driving sales of cloud gaming services or video game consoles, then this could result in the merged entity having both incentive and ability to foreclose rivals’ access to this content, weakening their ability to compete.
However, today's clearance makes it obvious those concerns have been overcome. In the press release that accompanied the announcement, Commission Chair Dr John Small stated:
While Activision games, in particular Call of Duty, are popular with New Zealand gamers, our enquiries did not find that they are likely to be ‘must have’ in order to compete with Microsoft in New Zealand.
It all depends on the United Kingdom's Competitions and Markets Authority now. The CMA was the only regulator to block the Activision Blizzard deal successfully in late April. Microsoft and Activision were in the process of appealing that ruling to the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), but on the same day that they defeated the FTC, both Microsoft and the CMA announced they would resume talks in light of a supposedly restructured deal. Rumors indicate that Microsoft and Activision might be selling their cloud gaming rights to a third party in the UK to appease the regulator.
The CMA is expected to issue new provisional findings on Microsoft's overhauled proposal later this week, though the deadline for the UK regulator's final order is set for August 28th.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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