Saudi Arabia has become “the first regulatory authority” to approve Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal.
The kingdom’s General Authority For Competition ruled they had no “objection” to the Bill Gates-founded tech giant purchasing the smaller company, which is being investigated by other similar regulatory authorities across the globe, as part of their move to Game Pass and streaming products.
On their official Twitter account, which has been translated into English, they declared “it that it has no objection to completing the process of economic concentration between” the two companies.
The nation - which has come under scrutiny many times for its human rights abuses at home and abroad - has come to their decision before the United States, which is expected soon and the United Kingdom, who according to the Competition and Markets Authority, is expected to announce their decision on September 1.
According to documents from the Brazilian's regulatory body CADE, Microsoft has been in dispute with Sony over the acquisition as the Japanese company believes the popularity of Call of Duty could lead to PlayStation players moving over to Xbox.
At the time, they said: “Call of Duty is so popular that it influences users’ choice of console, and its community of loyal users is entrenched enough that even if a competitor had the budget to develop a similar product, it would not be able to rival it.”
Microsoft responded that Sony was the only one to voice this concern and that they were “resentful of having to compete with Microsoft’s subscription service”.
