To misquote Roy Castle, the video games industry is closer than ever to adopting the song "Consolidation's what you need" as its anthem as the European Union passes the merger of Activision and Vivendi's gaming wing, Blizzard today.

The merger to create 'Activision Blizzard' is said to be worth $9.85 billion (£4.9b). We reported that today would likely be the day that the EU would ratify the deal in our story of April 9th.

Reuters reports that "The complex deal will give Vivendi a 52 percent stake in a new industry giant called Activision Blizzard with annual revenue of $3.8 billion, rivaling that of Electronic Arts the world's biggest independent game publisher."

The Union passed the deal through possible monopoly issues, saying it was valid because "the combined firm would continue to face several strong, effective competitors, such as Electronic Arts, and the game console manufacturers, such as Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft".

^{Source: Reuters}