Microsoft has encountered a lot more hurdles than it probably expected in its attempted acquisition of Activision Blizzard. For starters, the deal was blocked by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) last year, which has sued Microsoft due to concerns over competition in the gaming industry. Microsoft is pretty confident that it will win in court, especially given that the EU has now given the deal the green light. However, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is proving to be much more of a headache for the company.
The CMA followed the FTC's example and blocked the acquisition last month, on the basis that the deal could “alter the future of the fast-growing cloud gaming market". Unlike the FTC's lawsuit, there's very little that Microsoft can do to push the deal through as it stands that would satisfy the CMA, so it's possible that Microsoft could simply refuse to sell Activision Blizzard games in the UK to get around this issue.
For most of you reading, that will probably sound like a farfetched outcome, but it's one that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has refused to rule out. First shared by The Verge, an interviewer for CNBC TV recently asked Nadella whether there would ever be a scenario in which Microsoft could sell Activision Blizzard games in the US and EU, but leave out the UK. His response was something that British Call of Duty enjoyers probably won't want to hear, as Nadella simply says "Let's wait for it all to play out".
You could read this comment in one of two ways. Either Nadella is keeping his cards close to his chest - refusing to comment on the situation until work behind the scenes is done or decisions have been finalised - or that he's leaving the door open for a potential scenario in which Activision Blizzard games are no longer released in the UK. It's a very vague comment, but it seems as though Nadella is refusing to rule out the latter.
It's a pretty unlikely outcome given how big of a market the UK actually is for the gaming industry, and it's possible that the CMA could buckle under the pressure if both the EU and FTC allow the deal to pass. It's also possible that Microsoft could offer up some concessions addressing the CMA's concerns to get the deal through. It definitely feels like a worst-case scenario for both Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, though it's one that appears to have been left on the table. We'll have to wait and see how desperate Microsoft gets.