The European Commission has obtained permission from Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and all its sub-studios, including Bethesda Softworks.
The news of the EU Commission’s decision comes just days after it was announced that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had similarly approved a deal between a merger and a merger between the two companies.
In a statement on its website, the EU Commission stated that “the proposed construction would not raise any competition concerns, given the entity’s limited combined market position upstream and the presence of strong downstream competitors in distribution. video games ”.
He also clarified that the proposed construction had been “inspected under the normal union review procedure”.
Now that both the EU Commission and the SEC have greened the building, the US $ 7.5 billion deal does not pose any further major hurdles and should be finalized. ready by half a year.
Microsoft first announced its intention to acquire ZeniMax Media in September last year. The purchase would give Microsoft control over all ZeniMax studios including Bethesda Softworks, id Software, Arkane Studios and more.
Microsoft will help unify them through a newly created domain called Vault. While Microsoft will be monitoring all future projects, Xbox CEO Phil Spencer has announced that Microsoft will not be engaging with ZeniMax, whether through employee cuts or through development process. “It simply came to our notice then. ZeniMax has an amazing history of building big games, ”he said.
In addition, Microsoft has confirmed that all of Bethesda ‘s announced applications for PlayStation will be honored, with future games being released on competing Xbox consoles on a case – by – case basis. respectively.