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South Korea's regulatory board finds Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard a benefit to the company and the console game space at large.

Justin Carter, Contributing Editor

May 30, 2023

2 Min Read
Various Xbox-brand characters in a promotional image for the Microsoft console.

The month of May is over, and Microsoft managed to get one last regulator to approve its merger with Activision Blizzard. 

Per Korea Xbox News, and later corroborated to GamesIndustry, South Korea recently gave its support to the $68.7 billion deal. Similar to Brazil and Saudi Arabia, the country's approval was granted without any condition placed on either of the two game companies. 

Interestingly, the Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) reportedly believes the merger will be beneficial to the industry at large. It found that Microsoft's competitiveness would be "strengthened," particularly for console games. And it also believes there's "no concern" of less competition in Korea's video game market. 

It's another regulator win for Microsoft, but conflict persists

Throughout May, Microsoft has also managed to secure approvals from China and the European Commission (EU). The latter hasn't been without controversy, as UK regulator the CMA has made efforts to block the merger and condemned the EU for its approval.

Late last week, Microsoft filed an appeal against the CMA's block. The Xbox maker believes the CMA had "fundamental errors" when it chose to reject the Microsoft-Activision merger, and wants the decision to be completely quashed. 

Outside of the CMA, US regulator the FTC is also working to stop the merger. The FTC's lawsuit filed in December 2022 has put Microsoft on the defensive, and as of this past March, it needed internal documents from Sony to prove that its deal wouldn't leave Sony in the vulnerable state the PlayStation maker has repeatedly implied

About the Author(s)

Justin Carter

Contributing Editor, GameDeveloper.com

A Kansas City, MO native, Justin Carter has written for numerous sites including IGN, Polygon, and SyFy Wire. In addition to Game Developer, his writing can be found at io9 over on Gizmodo. Don't ask him about how much gum he's had, because the answer will be more than he's willing to admit.

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