Microsoft, Activision to sell streaming rights to secure biggest video gaming deal

“Call of Duty” maker Activision Blizzard will sell its streaming rights to Ubisoft Entertainment in a fresh attempt to win approval from Britain’s anti-trust regulator for its $69 billion sale to Microsoft.

Microsoft had announced the biggest gaming deal in history in early 2022, but the acquisition was blocked by Britain’s competition regulator, which was concerned that the American computing giant would gain too much control of the nascent cloud gaming market.

After months of back-and-forth, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said on Tuesday it had stuck by its original decision to veto the deal, forcing Microsoft to come forward with new terms.