Microsoft Xbox Chief ‘Confident’ on Closing Activision Deal

Microsoft Corp. Xbox chief Phil Spencer said the software giant continues to work with UK regulators to sort out the remaining hurdles to its $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard Inc., and the company is confident it can get the deal over the line.

“We’re working cooperatively with the regulators,” Spencer said Wednesday in an interview with Bloomberg Television, referring to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority as well as regulators in the US and Europe. “We remain confident in the work that we’re doing with the CMA and the European Commission and here with the FTC in the US, that we will close this acquisition.”

In July, Activision agreed to give Microsoft until Oct. 18 to resolve the remaining regulatory issues and close the transaction, which would be the biggest video-game deal of all time.

The CMA’s initial objection centered on worries that the acquisition could give Microsoft the ability to control the nascent but fast-growing market for cloud gaming. In a bid to assuage those concerns, Microsoft last month struck a deal to give French video-game publisher Ubisoft Entertainment SA cloud-streaming rights for Activision games. In a rare move, the CMA agreed to reconsider approving the transaction, setting a new deadline — also Oct. 18 — for an initial ruling on a new probe.

In the interview, Spencer also said the new Starfield game, from Xbox’s ZeniMax studio, has been in preview for a week and is already the company’s most-played exclusive game from the current generation of console titles.