Microsoft's $68.7bn (£55bn) acquisition of Activision Blizzard is one step closer to being finalised in the UK after the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) gave preliminary approval to the amended deal. 

The UK watchdog had blocked the acquisition over worries it would “alter the future of the fast-growing cloud gaming market”, leading to reduced innovation and fewer choices for UK gamers.

In response, the company reworked the agreement, offering to sell Activision’s non-European streaming rights to Ubisoft Entertainment as a way to assuage the regulator's concerns. Microsoft said its new proposal was a “substantially different transaction” to the one proposed in 2022. 

The revised transaction would allow Ubisoft to commercialise these rights to other cloud gaming services providers, including Microsoft itself. It would also prevent Microsoft from releasing Activision Blizzard games exclusively on its own cloud streaming service, Xbox Cloud...