The State Administration for Market Regulation of China has officially announced the list of unconditional concentration cases from May 15 to May 21, 2023, among which Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard's equity is among them, and the matter is closed on May 18.
Perhaps many Warcraft players are curious about why the acquisition of two foreign companies was approved by China's State Administration for Market Regulation, not to mention that Blizzard Games National Service has been suspended. The answer is simple, because both Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have operations in China, and unless Microsoft and Activision Blizzard intend to exit the Chinese market, the acquisition must be approved by China's State Administration for Market Regulation. The approval also gave Microsoft and Activision Blizzard a big word of goodwill to China, with an Activision Blizzard spokesperson excitedly saying: "We are excited to see China join dozens of other countries that support acquisitions and welcome more fair competition in the gaming industry." We are committed to the Chinese market and also have many excellent employees in China, we look forward to bringing more new choices and business contacts to the Chinese market. "
The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) yesterday announced its unconditional approval of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. It is worth mentioning that the Korea Fair Trade Commission in the document detailed the market share of Activision Blizzard consoles and games in various countries and regions around the world, Microsoft game console XBOX in the South Korean market share of only 5%-10%, while Microsoft and Activision Blizzard's games accounted for only 2%~6% of the total market share in South Korea, the data shows that this acquisition will not only not cause industry monopoly but is conducive to healthy competition in the Korean game market.
From the current situation, as long as Microsoft and Activision Blizzard are approved by the US Federal Trade Commission, then there will be almost no regulatory authorities in any country to oppose the acquisition, and the UK Competition and Markets Authority, which previously made the opposition ruling, may also be successfully appealed by Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, and the CEO of Microsoft even said in an interview recently that the possibility of Activision Blizzard products withdrawing from the UK market is not ruled out to solve the existing resistance.
Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard is closely related to whether Blizzard Games can be successfully reopened, and now Blizzard Entertainment simply cannot be the master of the national service agency negotiation, if the Microsoft acquisition is successful, then the national service agent will directly talk with Microsoft, if the acquisition fails, then continue to talk with Activision Blizzard, and it must be much better to talk with Microsoft than with Activision Blizzard. However, even if the acquisition fails, it does not mean that the national service will not be reopened, from Activision Blizzard's statement, it can be seen that they do not intend to give up the Chinese market, but NetEase is unlikely to continue to take over, and more foreign media predict that Warcraft National Service is likely to open the "test" in the form of free play in 2023, and then open the official operation of the fee after solving the version number and other issues in 2024. In short, reopening the national service is a win-win, not opening the national service is a lose-lose, I hope that all the success of Microsoft's acquisition and the national service will be reopened as soon as possible.