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Well that's it. Microsoft has completed their acquisition of Activision Blizzard King thanks to the UK's Competition & Markets Authority clearing the way.

As announced by the UK CMA, they said the new deal where Microsoft does not purchase Activision's cloud gaming rights, which instead goes to Ubisoft would "preserve competitive prices and better services":

In its original investigation, the CMA found Microsoft already held a strong position in relation to cloud gaming and blocked the deal. 

The sale of Activision’s cloud streaming rights to Ubisoft will prevent the distribution of important, popular content – including games such as Call of Duty, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft – from coming under the control of Microsoft in relation to cloud gaming. The restructured deal substantially addressed the concerns that the CMA had following its original investigation, which concluded earlier this year.   

The CMA did identify limited residual concerns with the new deal, but Microsoft gave undertakings that will ensure that the terms of the sale of Activision’s rights to Ubisoft are enforceable by the CMA. 

The CMA consulted on these undertakings and is satisfied that this will provide the safety net needed to make sure this deal is properly implemented.

UK CMA

Microsoft also have their own announcement to note it's finished that's just celebrating the deal. In the post they confirmed the plan to add Activision, Blizzard, and King franchises to Game Pass and other platforms.

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What are you thoughts on this finally being completed?

Any feelings on Microsoft and Xbox aside, game industry consolidation is worrying. With many publishers and developers getting swallowed up, it hands a lot of power to a few companies. We've seen so many times now what happens like with the troubles at Embracer as just one recent example.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly.
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CanadianBlueBeer Oct 14, 2023
I don't want to give M$ any $ but... conflicted.
Keeping my WoW sub as next year is the 20th anniversary.
Still have my stupid fallout 1st sub (mostly for the junk storage and the cheaty world).

Oh, and M$ published a HowTo install Linux? A rather decent one too.

Don't give a rats patootie about consoles anyway. :P

Guess I'm just gonna have to see what they DO in the future.

(if they ever put the windows GUI on top of a Linux kernal and make their own distro...
well, that'll be the time to snag a keg. My brain will be thoroughly fried)

mumble....

(yes, I really really hate M$)
omer666 Oct 14, 2023
By acquiring CoD, Overwatch 2 and King's F2P, Microsoft actually just got worse than it was before.
wvstolzing Oct 14, 2023
Quoting: Pengling
Quoting: massatt212i check rare hardly made anything good.
Rare were an extremely influential game-developer, and your opinion on their output doesn't change the facts that I stated above.

I mean, they made Conker's Bad Fur Day -- how do you top that?

(only joking, of course.)
14 Oct 15, 2023
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I've gotten tired of the news, so I'm glad it's over. Do I like that it happened? No. Did I like what Activision Blizzard was before the takeover? No. So, even though I think it's bad news... kinda meh for me.
Pengling Oct 15, 2023
Quoting: wvstolzingI mean, they made Conker's Bad Fur Day -- how do you top that?

(only joking, of course.)
HAHAHAHA! I would've linked to the "Great Mighty Poo" song here, but it's so crass that I'm pretty sure it's against half the rules of the universe, never mind GOL.
chickenb00 Oct 15, 2023
Quoting: 14I've gotten tired of the news, so I'm glad it's over. Do I like that it happened? No. Did I like what Activision Blizzard was before the takeover? No. So, even though I think it's bad news... kinda meh for me.

This is how I feel too. I don't like the industry consolidation, I don't like Microsoft throwing its billions around, I don't care about the "but Sony" argument, but most of all I'm tired of thinking about it and especially reading about it. News media falling over themselves to write on it, the endless for-and-agaonst arguments...
Very disappointed the purchase completed, but glad to move on from this anyway.
matiaslavik Oct 16, 2023
Can't wait for next BlizzCon: "Do you guys not have Windows??"
shibuya Oct 16, 2023
Thanks for this article Liam, I have printed it off and added it to my medkit for when I need to induce vomiting.
slaapliedje Oct 16, 2023
I don't really care about who owns Activision/Blizzard, as I simply try to avoid their games anyhow. The ones I was irritated about was Obsidian and inXile, as they used to make Linux native games... Zenimax has been broken / anti-Linux for a long time.
Purple Library Guy Oct 16, 2023
Quoting: matiaslavikCan't wait for next BlizzCon: "Do you guys not have Windows??"
Just tell them "Didn't you get the memo? You guys are Microsoft now. And Microsoft loooves Linux, they said so!"
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