After greater than 20 months and extra hurdles than a monitor meet, Microsoft has accomplished its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Despite efforts from governments within the US and UK to maintain tech giants from rising in measurement and attain, Microsoft’s acquisition of the Call of Duty maker exhibits the enduring energy of main expertise firms—even within the face of regulatory obstacles. The final of these obstacles got here in April, when the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority blocked the deal. Today, the CMA reversed the choice, clearing the best way for Microsoft’s acquisition to complete.

“We now have all regulatory approvals necessary to close, and we look forward to bringing joy and connection to even more players around the world,” Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick mentioned in a statement to employees.

The closing of the deal presents a peek at gaming’s future, one through which Microsoft now holds a large chunk of the market. What’s most attention-grabbing in regards to the resolution that got here out of the UK is the explanation it occurred. Although a variety of hand-wringing in regards to the deal had targeted on whether or not Microsoft would have an excessive amount of energy within the gaming area broadly, the CMA’s focus had been on cloud gaming. In August, Activision agreed to promote its non-European cloud gaming rights to Ubisoft, a transfer the CMA believes will guarantee competitors within the area.

“We delivered a clear message to Microsoft that the deal would be blocked unless they comprehensively addressed our concerns and stuck to our guns on that,” CMA chief Sarah Cardell mentioned. “With the sale of Activision’s cloud streaming rights to Ubisoft, we’ve made sure Microsoft can’t have a stranglehold over this important and rapidly developing market.”

That doesn’t imply the deal isn’t an enormous consolidation of gaming beneath the umbrella of 1 firm. When the US Federal Trade Commission originally sued to dam the acquisition final December, it did so over considerations that the deal would “enable Microsoft to suppress competitors to its Xbox gaming consoles and its rapidly growing subscription content and cloud-gaming business.” In July, a decide in California denied the FTC’s request for an injunction on the deal after Microsoft agreed to maintain Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty on PlayStation for a decade and convey the sport to the Nintendo Switch.

The FTC, although, isn’t totally by means of with Microsoft. The company remains to be interesting that ruling and, per a CNBC report on Friday, is sticking with a listening to on the matter scheduled for December. “Microsoft and Activision’s new agreement with Ubisoft presents a whole new facet to the merger that will affect American consumers,” spokesperson Victoria Graham mentioned. “The FTC continues to believe this deal is a threat to competition.”

Even after making concessions to regulators, Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard remains to be big in scale. In addition to having scores of the corporate’s video games to supply on Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft will now add 9 Blizzard sport studios to Xbox Game Studios and bring some 8,500 Activision employees into the Microsoft fold.

What all of this implies for players in the long run stays to be seen, however in a statement issued at present, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer appeared to anticipate considerations about video games ending up solely within the Microsoft ecosystem. “Whether you play on Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, PC or mobile, you are welcome here—and will remain welcome, even if Xbox isn’t where you play your favorite franchise,” he mentioned, including “when everyone plays, we all win.” Today, although, the win is Microsoft’s.