The last big coup from Microsoft’s checkbook, announced last September, had yet to be validated by the financial market regulators. In the US as in Europe, the takeover of the parent company of Bethesda was passed on like a letter in the mail.
see also: Indiana Jones: No impact on the developments from Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI to Bethesda
The Security and Exchange Commission Americans and the Europenne Commission Both approved Microsoft’s acquisition of ZeniMax Media for $ 7.5 billion on Thursday, March 4th and Friday, March 5th, 2021.
Brussels has no reservations about this transaction, which is not considered anti-competitive:
The European Commission has approved the acquisition of ZeniMax Media Inc. by Microsoft Corporation in the United States under the European Union’s Merger Regulation. ZeniMax is a company that develops and sells games for PCs, game consoles and mobile devices. Microsoft is a global technology company that develops, publishes, and distributes games for PCs, consoles, and mobile devices. The Commission concluded that the proposed acquisition would not raise competition concerns in view of the limited position of the combined company in the upstream market and the presence of strong downstream competitors in the distribution of video games.
With ZeniMax, Xbox Game Studios ZeniMax Online Studios, Bethesda, id Software, Arkane Studios, MachinesGames, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog and Roundhouse Studios are available. Either a jumble of existing and future games like Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo, exclusively for PlayStation consoles, or an Indiana Jones in preparation in addition to The Elder Scrolls VI and Starfield. It remains to be seen how everything will be managed after Phil Spencer stated last September that releases on other computers would be on a case-by-case basis.
[Via]
