What's most disappointing about this aside from the negative impacts it has on consumers with no benefits is how it shows what a grip Microsoft has on uk entities. This has been a problem for decades. Microsoft is one of those companies that has its tendrils all throughout the uk, and they can get whatever they want. Even when what they want is in opposition to decisions made by authorities specifically designed to block this kind of thing.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It sounds like the issue the regulator had was something specific to cloud game streaming, and Microsoft addressed that.

The CMA had originally blocked the acquisition over cloud gaming concerns, but Microsoft recently restructured the deal to transfer cloud gaming rights for current and new Activision Blizzard games to Ubisoft.

[–] echo64 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

yes that's mechanism where you see microsoft get what they want. they do a platitude that doesn't affect them, that they generally won't even bother to enforce. because the regulatory body can't just say "they made us do this by talking to someone higher up that said we had to do this"

the CMA never goes back on decisions like this, their decision is final and you can only fight it by going to the courts and the courts will only rule on if it was legal for the CMA to make the decision, not on the validity of the decision.

yet microsoft gets an unheard-of do-over.