The UK’s regulator will reassess Microsoft’s bid to merge with Activision Blizzard.
The Competition and Markets Authority previously blocked the $69 billion deal - which is set to be the biggest in gaming history and to allow the tech giant to offer the Call of Duty’s developer back catalogue of titles on their Xbox cloud service - citing concerns about unfairness for the rest of the industry.
But is now looking into its ruling after a federal court blocked the Federal Trade Commission putting a stop to it.
A spokesperson for the watchdog revealed that they were going to complete a “full and proper consideration” of the takeover by 29 August after getting a “detailed and complex” proposal it had received from the Bill Gates-founded tech giant.
This comes after they announced on Wednesday the CMA was "ready to consider any proposals from Microsoft to restructure the transaction" amid the European Union’s relevant bodies approving the deal that now includes a clause for certain games to be licenced to rival consoles like Nintendo and Sony for a decade.
They added: "Microsoft and Activision have indicated that they are considering how the transaction might be modified, and the CMA is prepared to engage with them on this basis.”
Microsoft’s president Brad Smith revealed the firm was disappointed that the FTC is continuing to pursue what has become a demonstrably weak case.
"We will oppose further efforts to delay the ability to move forward.”
