New report from MLex:
- Microsoft committed to EU regulators last night to make Activision Blizzard's catalog of games, including Call of Duty, available to rival cloud gaming services according to MLex.
- The offer does not include concessions to ease EU concerns over how the takeover might impact Sony's PlayStation or Google's PC operating system, indicating that the EC has narrowed its objections to the deal to focus on cloud gaming.
- The 10-year remedy proposal follows the template of recent deals announced by Microsoft with cloud gaming providers Nvidia, Boosteroid and Ubitus.
- The EC is consulting market players on Microsoft's cloud gaming offer and now it has until May 22 to issue a final decision.
So, the EC didn't drop the cloud gaming concerns. In fact, those are the main ones right now.
That's very interesting because then the CMA and the EC are more aligned than we thought regarding the theories of harm. The main difference would be that the CMA is also concerned about the console market (it looks like both regulators have dropped the concerns about PC OS).
The timing between the CMA and the EC is again different (now the CMA could be a few weeks ahead).
In any case, if the CMA goes first, April 26th is still the more relevant date.