The previous deadline of July 18 has been pushed back. Still, the termination fee will be increased for Microsoft if an agreement on the acquisition transaction is not reached by the specified dates.

Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have jointly decided to extend the closing date of the $68.7 billion acquisition of the Redmond tech giant from July 18 to October 18 to address outstanding regulatory concerns (FTC – US, CMA – UK). Microsoft President Brad Smith (also) tweeted about it. And Xbox CEO Phil Spencer is optimistic and excited to bring more games to gamers everywhere.

Because of the extra time, Activision Blizzard will pay 99 cents per share to stockholders and will only have to pay the termination fee if the deal fails Microsoft. If they fail to close the deal by August 29, Microsoft will have to pay $3.5 billion instead of $3 billion. After September 15, that figure will rise to $4.5 billion, meaning that the company, rich due to its Windows and Office products, will have to pay one and a half times the original fine if the FTC or the CMA can still block the deal.

We’ve written about the failure of Battle.net before, and nothing proves it better than Blizzard’s announcement that Overwatch 2 will be the first game from them to hit Steam  (from August 10). They’ve probably done so because many people don’t play the game, and its eSports league, the Overwatch League, could be brought to its knees. “Blizzard’s goal is to listen to players and try to exceed their expectations in everything we do. While Battle.net remains a priority for us now and into the future, we’ve heard players want Steam to select our games, starting with Overwatch 2. We’re happy to work with Valve to make that happen,” wrote Mike Ybarra, Blizzard’s president.

Of course, we’ll need Battle.net accounts on Steam, but after that, we might ask, when is Diablo IV coming, or maybe Diablo II: Resurrected?

Source: Gematsu, WCCFTech