Microsoft president clarifies EU cloud agreement, popular games will be 'automatically' licensed to competitors and 'this will apply globally'

pcgamer.com:

We're reaching the business end of Microsoft's huge heave to get its proposed $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard approved, and earlier this week it took a big step forward when the EU Commission approved the deal(opens in new tab). The EU regulator noted many of the same concerns about the nascent cloud gaming market as the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which has said it will block the deal(opens in new tab), but was ultimately persuaded by the remedies Microsoft proposed.

Microsoft offered the following commitments, all with a 10-year duration:

The EU reckons these «fully address» concerns, and «represent a significant improvement for cloud game streaming compared to the current situation».

Now Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith has filled-in the details on exactly what Microsoft has promised here. «The European Commission has required Microsoft to license popular Activision Blizzard games automatically to competing cloud gaming services,» said Smith. «This will apply globally and will empower millions of consumers worldwide to play these games on any device they choose.»

The European Commission has required Microsoft to license popular Activision Blizzard games automatically to competing cloud gaming services. This will apply globally and will empower millions of consumers worldwide to play these games on any device they choose.May 15, 2023

The most interesting element here, apart from Smith conveniently forgetting to mention the time-limited nature of the agreements, is that Microsoft has clearly chosen to make this a global commitment when all the EU is concerned about is what goes on in the European Economic Area. This is of course because, despite all the early chat