Microsoft’s Activision acquisition has only two countries left to convince

Microsoft‘s proposed acquisition of Activision has been approved in New Zealand, leaving only the regulators in Australia and the United Kingdom left to convince.

The Commerce Commission of New Zealand decided that the $69billion (£55billion) buyout would not endanger competition on consoles or on cloud gaming services. Additionally, it discerned that games like Call Of Duty, Overwatch 2 and World Of Warcraft would not be significant factors determining a consumer’s choice.

“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,” said commission chair Dr John Small in a statement to Press Start.

Microsoft shared its own response to the outcome in New Zealand via the outlet, thanking the commission for its thorough audit into the possible impacts.

“We appreciate the thoughtful consideration by the New Zealand Competition Commerce Commission of our acquisition of Activision Blizzard and welcome their its decision to clear the deal unconditionally,” it said. “This acquisition will ultimately benefit the gaming industry and gamers and we will continue to work toward closing the deal.”

On the other hand, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission suspended its review of the Activision acquisition in February. Its reason was that it is “engaging with overseas regulators” which is rarely publicised in these kinds of processes as it could undermine the independence of a regulator’s investigation.

Moreover, this “overseas regulator” is in all likelihood the Competition and Markets Authority in the United Kingdom. In April, it announced that the acquisition would “damage competition in the cloud gaming market, leading to less innovation and choice for UK gamers”.

In other gaming news, Dark And Darker developer Ironmace intends to restore the dungeon crawler’s presence on Steam as it enters early access this week.