There you have it. The EU donkeys falling for the carrot on the stick and unbeknownst to them, they have approved a horizontally integrated merger that is a bad deal for gamers and competition.

The EU has done may silly decisions like their recent AI act legislation, but this one is their biggest error yet which they have failed to stop the further consolidation of large existing multi-billion dollar games companies.

The EU is know to give in to bribes so easily and €5M in bribes is just beyond pathetic to approve this.

I'm curious as to why you think it's a bad deal for gamers and competition, given the disdain pretty much every gamer with experience has with Activision. Microsoft seems, at least outwardly, to care about their gaming division and their games have a whole lot less predatory microtransactions compared to anything that has come out of Activision in the last x years.

Microsoft has Seven! lobbyists with European Parliament accreditation. It must get busy in those coffee breaks. If you know the layout of the building in Brussels, you might know you can't go to the the toilet in peace without bumping into a Microsoft lobbyist :-)