Microsoft announced its intention to acquire Activision Blizzard more than a year ago. That’s just a big deal and there are still some hordes to go before he’s around. It looks like one of those hordes has been taken: the British watchdog CMA is a lot more lenient towards the deal.

The acquisition of Activision Blizzard is still being investigated by a number of key watchdogs. For example, the EU, the British CMA and the US FTC have yet to give their approval. In February, the CMA still had great concerns about the takeover, but after further investigation, the watchdog is different.

In addition to the preliminary findings of the CMA, it can be read that the body no longer fears that Microsoft will become too dominant in the console market. New evidence suggests that the acquisition of Activision Blizzard ” will not lead to a substantial decrease in competition as far as console gaming is concerned in the UK”. In particular, the CMA’s vision of Call of Duty has changed.

Initially, the CMA felt that Microsoft would have reason to make the game an Xbox exclusive. In the meantime, Microsoft has already indicated with all kinds of deals that that is not the plan for the time being. New insight into the buying behavior of Call of Duty players has additionally convinced the CMA that Microsoft would turn a loss if it made Call of Duty an Xbox exclusive.

So it looks like the CMA may now approve the acquisition. However, the CMA still fears that Microsoft may become too dominant in the field of cloud gaming, something that is still taken into account in the final decision that will come in april. The EU and the FTC also have yet to come to a decision, the deadline for which has been postponed by the EU.