Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has been instrumental in the investment growth allowed for the gaming division led by Phil Spencer.

　　In October 2017, he underlined his vision for Game Pass: a Netflix-like subscription service for games. To do that, Game Pass needed a lot of content, and in the following years, the Microsoft CEO greenlit aggressive investments that led to the acquisition of development studios like Playground Games, Undead Labs, Ninja Theory, Compulsion Games, inXile Entertainment, Obsidian Entertainment, Double Fine Productions, and the entirety of ZeniMax Media (Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, MachineGames, Arkane Studios, Tango Gameworks, Roundhouse Studios, ZeniMax Online Studios).

　　The biggest acquisition was announced in early 2022, however, when Microsoft and Activision Blizzard agreed to a merger worth $68.7 billion. Dozens of articles have been written since on the deal, though Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella rarely shared a direct comment except when he expressed 'strong confidence' that it would eventually be approved by regulators around the world.

　　That changed today when CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin interviewed him during the latest episode of Squawk Box, a morning news and talk program dedicated to business. While Sorkin started the interview by asking Nadella about OpenAI and generative AI, the conversation then moved on to the recent decision of the United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority to block the Activision Blizzard deal merger.

　　On that note, the Microsoft CEO said:

　　Look, I mean, the fundamental logic of this deal, bringing more competition and more opportunity for publishers and gamers, still holds, so as far as I'm concerned, we keep going. We wait for what the European Union decides. We have a process; we obviously respect the sovereignty of the United Kingdom and the CMA to decide what's good in that country. In some sense, this is the most pro-competitive thing I've ever seen. It is using in some sense a large company's ability to persist and go introduce more competition and I think consumer surplus.

　　If value is the goal and more competition is the goal and the benefit for small publishers is the goal then it checks all the boxes, so I'm very surprised.

　　Notably, the conversation happened before the European Union decided to approve the deal just yesterday, which is certain to reinforce Microsoft's conviction in pursuing the deal and appealing the CMA's ruling.

　　The kicker from the Microsoft CEO came later in the Squawk Box interview when he was asked whether it was conceivable that Microsoft would elect not to sell Activision Blizzard games in the United Kingdom. Instead of flat-out denying the mere possibility, Nadella calmly replied, 'Let's wait for it all to play out'.

　　So far, one big proponent of such an idea has been Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter, who publicly advised Microsoft to carve out Game Pass in the United Kingdom and have no Activision content there in a chat with Axios' Stephen Totilo.

　　Needless to say, Microsoft would very much like to avoid that scenario since the UK remains one of the most important gaming markets. However, given Nadella's open-ended response on the subject, it's not necessarily something to rule out if the CMA appeal doesn't go as planned. Both Microsoft and Activision Blizzard appear fully committed to getting this deal done, and the European Union's approval certainly helped in that regard.