Activision Blizzard lays off around 50 esports staff amid a potential Overwatch League overhaul

While Microsoft sent its final submission to the Consumer Markets Authority in the UK regarding its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, another regular has approved the deal. New Zealand’s Commerce Commission announced its approval, noting its focus on “the importance of Activision games (such as Call of Duty, Overwatch and World of Warcraft) to New Zealand gamers.”

Today, after a long list of eight delays (called time extensions), the New Zealand Commerce Commission has officially cleared Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. That makes the Pacific Ocean island country the 42nd where the deal has been approved, although technically, the Federal Trade Commission may still continue to pursue its in-house judiciary process even after being defeated in federal court following the request for a preliminary injunction.

Microsoft has sent a final report to the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in an effort to persuade the watchdog to overturn its block on the US tech giant's plan to acquire Activision Blizzard.

With the US Federal Trade Commission’s request for an injunction on the Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard denied, approval from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is the only obstacle left. The latter initially denied the deal, with an appeal set to occur on July 28th, but the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) provided two months for both parties to resolve the same.

Speaking with the publication Transformer World, a Hasbro representative has revealed that Activision Blizzard currently doesn’t know the whereabouts of the source code for the various Transformers games that they were in charge of publishing.

Following victories over the FTC in the United States and other approvals from regulatory bodies in the EU and other locations, Microsoft is trying to convince the UK Competition and Markets Authority ( CMA ) to change its mind and approve the company’s deal to acquire Activision Blizzard. In an unusual step, the CMA is requesting new comments on the deal and will consider them ahead of its final order due next month.

The parent company to ExpressVPN, Private Internet Access, and CyberGhost VPN, appears to have laid off about 30% of its staff amid a corporate reorganization.

CD Projekt is RED going to have several major projects on its plate in the coming years, but it seems its current headcount of employees is more than what it will need. In a recently published organizational update, the company has announced that it will be laying off around 100 people between now and Q1 2024, which will account for roughly 9% of its total workforce.

CD Projekt is laying off "around 100" developers because it's "overstaffed."

CD Projekt Red has announced that it will be laying off nearly 10% of its staff in the coming months.

Microsoft's Activision Blizzard deal is back in the hands of Britain's antitrust regulator after an appeals court granted an adjournment, and the grounds for why the UK should reconsider its block on the US software giant's takeover were published.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has commented on Microsoft's takeover bid of Activision Blizzard, stating it validates Ubisoft's decision to expand into mobile gaming.