While Microsoft’s proposed purchase of Activision Blizzard has cleared most hurdles, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has been one of the last holdouts. The CMA was satisfied with Microsoft’s agreements regarding Call of Duty, but the group opposed the deal in April over cloud gaming concerns. In an effort to get the deal passed, Microsoft has announced a 15-year partnership that will grant Ubisoft streaming rights for all new and current Activision PC and console games. The games will be available to stream through Ubisoft+, and Ubisoft states that it will be allowed “to license them to cloud gaming companies, service providers, and console makers.”ย
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“The agreement provides Ubisoft with a unique opportunity tocommercialize the distribution of games via cloud streaming. Theagreement will enable Ubisoft to innovate and encourage differentbusiness models in the licensing and pricing of these games on cloudstreaming services worldwide,” writes Microsoft president Brad Smith. “Ubisoft will compensate Microsoft for thecloud streaming rights to Activision Blizzard’s games through a one-offpayment and through a market-based wholesale pricing mechanism,including an option that supports pricing based on usage. It will alsogive Ubisoft the opportunity to offer Activision Blizzard’s games tocloud gaming services running non-Windows operating systems.”
Microsoft goes on to state that the agreement with Ubisoft will still allow the company to honor the commitments it signed to cloud streaming companies such as Nvidia and Boosteroid. Both of those companies took issue with the CMA’s decision earlier this year. While the CMA claimed it was blocking the deal to protect these types of cloud gaming companies, Boosteroid and Nvidia argued that Microsoft’s commitments would expand the number of games available to their users.
Activision Blizzard’s games will be available for streaming through Ubisoft+ Multi Access, which is compatible with Xbox platforms, PC, and Amazon Luna. PlayStation users will be able to stream Activision Blizzard games through Ubisoft+ Classics. It remains to be seen whether the move will be enough to satisfy the UK’s CMA, but the deal between Microsoft and Ubisoft could bring an end to a process that started all the way back in January 2022.
Do you think Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard will gothrough? Are you surprised that Ubisoft will gain cloud streaming rights to Activision’s games? Let usknow inthecomments orshare yourthoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!
