The CMA blocked, then cleared, the Activision deal in 2023

The signal

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority blocked Microsoft's proposed $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard on 26 April 2023, then cleared a restructured version of the same deal on 13 October 2023, a gaming-sector regulatory sequence the CMA's own case page lays out with each decision dated. The regulator's stated reason for the initial block was the deal's effect on the emerging cloud gaming market, not console or PC gaming, which the CMA had by then narrowed out of scope.

The evidence

The CMA's 26 April 2023 release quotes panel chair Martin Coleman stating that 'cloud gaming needs a free, competitive market to drive innovation and choice', and states that UK cloud gaming users had more than tripled from early 2021 to the end of 2022, with Microsoft then estimated to control 60-70% of global cloud gaming services. The regulator found Microsoft's proposed behavioural remedy - commitments on licensing Activision titles to rival cloud services - insufficiently open to non-Windows platforms and unable to standardise terms in a way that preserved competition. The case page records that Microsoft restructured the deal to exclude non-EEA cloud streaming rights, which the CMA accepted as grounds to consent to the revised transaction on 13 October 2023.

Timeframe and confidence

Both documents are the regulator's own record of its statutory decisions, which is as authoritative as evidence gets for what a competition authority found and when; there is no ambiguity about the dates or the stated reasoning. What the record does not settle is whether the divestiture of non-EEA cloud rights was a substantive fix or a structural workaround that left the underlying market position largely intact - that judgment is this desk's own open question, not a finding in either document.

What would change the reading

Evidence on how cloud gaming market shares moved after October 2023, or a later CMA review of the remedy's effectiveness, would show whether the narrower divestiture actually preserved competition. A similar merger review in another jurisdiction reaching a different conclusion on the same facts would also be informative about how market-specific the CMA's finding was.

• Did the divestiture of non-EEA cloud streaming rights measurably change market shares after 2023?
• Has the CMA published any post-clearance review of the remedy's effect on cloud gaming competition?
• How did other competition regulators reviewing the same merger treat the cloud gaming market definition?

A blocked-then-cleared sequence on the same underlying transaction shows a regulator's market definition was decisive, not the deal's overall scale. The eventual clearance turned on a narrow carve-out, not a reversal of the original competition finding.

Source trail

1. Microsoft / Activision Blizzard merger inquirywww.gov.uk · Source publication: not established · Retrieved 2026-09-16

   Lays out the full case timeline, including the 26 April 2023 block decision and the 13 October 2023 clearance of the restructured deal.

2. Microsoft / Activision deal prevented to protect innovation and choice in cloud gamingwww.gov.uk · Source publication: 2023-04-26 · Retrieved 2026-09-16

   States the CMA's cloud gaming market findings, Microsoft's estimated market share, and the reasoning for blocking the deal, with a direct quote from the panel chair.

Read across the evidence

• Closing a game acquisition starts the platform work
• Brussels named six gatekeepers with a compliance clock

Platforms & distribution · All 100 historical records