Indeed, Microsoft has just suffered a painful snub from the CMA, the English regulatory commission, which expressed concern about the potential hegemony of Xbox structures on the cloud. “The CMA has blocked Microsoft’s proposed takeover of Activision, fearing the deal will damage the future of the rapidly growing cloud gaming market and lead to reduced innovation and choice for UK gamers in years to come“, they justified on their official website. Between two scathing responses, the Redmond titan said he wanted to appeal.
But the next deadline will therefore be May 22, before the European Commission, another major body which could object to the acquisition of Activision-Blizzard according to the same arguments. This opportune partnership with Nware therefore aims to show its credentials in front of the legislators. Brad Smith states that “While the emerging cloud gaming industry is still in its infancy, this new partnership, combined with [leurs] other recent commitments, will make more popular games available on more platforms than before.“A way to hammer home that the Xbox catalog – Activision or not – will not be exclusive to the home service xCloud, and therefore, does not risk leading to a monopoly situation.
Microsoft and European cloud gaming platform Nware have signed a 10-year agreement. Our statement here: pic.twitter.com/GWoSBg63P6
—Brad Smith (@BradSmi) April 28, 2023
Is there still espware?
Less known than its competitors, the Spanish service Nware offers cloud access to our Steam, Ubisoft or Epic libraries, on the model of GeForce Now. It is also possible to access Roblox and Minecraft through our own launcher. Obviously, it is also possible to store our backups there, just to resume our game from anywhere without a hitch. Nware prides itself on being an easy-to-access service. Currently reserved for Android platforms, it displays a catalog of 20,000 games with maximum performance of 60 FPS in 1080p. Interestingly, Nware is available in Western Europe, but also in Latin America. Prices start at €8.99 per month.
Nware is far from the first cloud platform to sign with Xbox. GeForce NOW, Boosteroid and Ubitus have already made a deal with the company with the green logo. So far, this tactic is paying off, as both brands have publicly criticized the CMA’s verdict. Nvidia, in particular, said: “GeForce NOW, along with the other cloud providers, would only deepen their catalog of games if Microsoft could complete their acquisition of Activision. We see this as a clear benefit for cloud gaming and hope that a positive resolution will be possible.“
GeForce NOW and other cloud gaming providers stand to gain an even deeper catalog of games if Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision is completed.
We see this as a benefit to cloud gaming and hope for a positive resolution.
— ?️ NVIDIA GeForce NOW (@NVIDIAGFN) April 27, 2023
However, the nature of a 10-year contract could still upset regulators, because of the expiration date. Indeed, after 10 years, nothing says that Xbox will want to continue to share its catalog. If no one ventures to predict the state of the market a decade from now, but the British commission had pointed out that “Microsoft’s solution had significant shortcomings and would require regulatory scrutiny from the CMAIn other words, to ensure the proper functioning of the capitalist free market, this type of temporary patching is not satisfactory in their eyes.
Clearly, this new partnership absolutely does not guarantee that the regulators will retract their reservations. See you on May 22 to discover Europe’s decision.