In the final stretch of its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft will transfer the rights for the cloud of Activision Blizzard titles, present and future, to Ubisoft. A step forward made towards the UK regulator, the last major body opposed to this acquisition.
“To address concerns about the impact of the proposed acquisition on cloud gaming raised by the UK Competition and Markets Authority, we are restructuring the transaction to acquire a narrower set of rights,” announces Brad Smith, president of Microsoft. “This includes putting in place an agreement at the time of the merger that will transfer cloud streaming rights for all Activisions Blizzard titles on PC and consoles, whether current or coming out within the next 15 years, to Ubisoft Entertainment SA. , a world leader in video game publishing. The rights will be in perpetuity. »
Concretely, such an agreement would prevent Microsoft from deploying future Activision Blizzard releases only on Xbox Cloud Gaming. The American giant would also lose licensing control over other cloud services. In return, Ubisoft, which will therefore manage their marketing as it pleases, will pay a large check to acquire these rights. This agreement is worldwide, but does not cancel Microsoft’s previous commitments to the European Commission. Other streaming services will also see the arrival of Activision Blizzard games.
And now we have to wait for the CMA
The French publisher is also taking the opportunity to add Activision Blizzard titles to its online subscription service, through a subscription to Ubisoft+ Multi Access. And therefore greatly enrich the library of its offer. Whether on PC, Xbox, Amazon Luna, or PlayStation via Ubisoft Plus Classics. It is still worth remembering that this agreement only concerns streaming services, through the cloud. The Game Pass, download service, is therefore absolutely not concerned.
It now remains to wait for the result of the new CMA procedure, which opened today. With a deadline set for October 18 to validate or not the buyout. The English commission also ensures that it is not a question of a given green light, but of a new investigation to protect the rights of consumers. While specifying that the first version of the takeover, all the concessions made to the European Union included, is indeed prohibited. But difficult to imagine the acquisition not being validated at the end of the procedure.