In another attempt at appeasing regulatory bodies, Microsoft has submitted a proposal for remedies to the European Union that would essentially allow them to complete the Activision Blizzard acquisition. Microsoft President Brad Smith has said the U.S. software company was prepared to offer rivals licensing deals to ease competition concerns but not to selling the Call of Duty franchise.
Today, Microsoft submitted some remedies in an attempt to win the approval of the EU’s antitrust government body to validate its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, a deal that’s been met with massive scrutiny ever since it was announced. The EU antitrust body didn’t really provide the details regarding the remedies offered, but as stated before, the president of Microsoft has talked about the third-party deals it’s been making regarding the Call of Duty franchise.
A spokesperson for Microsoft also stated the following:
We have stood behind our promise to bring Call of Duty to more gamers on more devices by entering into agreements to bring the game to the Nintendo console and cloud game streaming services offered by Nvidia, Boosteroid, and Ubitus. We are now backing up that promise with binding commitments to the European Commission, which will ensure that this deal benefits gamers into the future.
Meanwhile, in the US, Microsoft is facing its own heat after receiving a request from the FTC for information on the current deals that Microsoft has with Nintendo and NVIDIA in the wake of the Activision Blizzard acquisition. This government body particularly seeks to gather information surrounding all the documents related to the exclusivity of content that Microsoft acquired from ZeniMax and the exclusivity of content they intend to acquire from Activision Blizzard should the merger go through.
According to sources close to Reuters (sourced by Yahoo! Finance), Microsoft is likely to win the clearance from the European Union for the deal with the licensing deals and behavioral remedies. However, the jury is still out on whether the UK authority will do the same thing. Recently, the Competition and Markets Authority has been offered remedies by Microsoft and it hasn’t responded to them just yet.
So, for now, that’s it for the news, we don’t know the details regarding the remedies offered to either of the commissions. But you can be sure that we’ll be reporting on them once more information is found out. Make sure to stay tuned for more information on this and other developments throughout the gaming industry.
