Microsoft transfers Activision Blizzard streaming rights to Ubisoft to appease UK regulators
Microsoft has agreed to give Ubisoft the cloud streaming rights to Call of Duty and all other Activision Blizzard titles releasing over the next 15 years in a bid to push its $68.7 billion merger through in the UK.
The Xbox maker hopes the agreement will help address the concerns of UK regulator the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which blocked the company's original merger proposal over fears it would allow the company to dominate the nascent cloud gaming market.
"As a result of the agreement with Ubisoft, Microsoft believes its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard presents a substantially different transaction under UK law than the transaction Microsoft submitted for the CMA’s consideration in 2022," wrote Microsoft in a blog post.
"Under the restructured transaction, Microsoft will not be in a position either to release Activision Blizzard games exclusively on its own cloud streaming service—Xbox Cloud Gaming—or to exclusively control the licensing terms of Activision Blizzard games for rival services."
Microsoft added that the agreement will provide Ubisoft with a "unique opportunity to commercialize the distribution of games via cloud streaming," and said the French publisher will be allowed to "innovate and encourage [the use of] different business models in the licensing and pricing of these games."
Notably. Microsoft's obligations to provide cloud streaming rights in the European Economic Area remain in place, allowing the company to comply with its commitments to the European Commission. It will also honor its existing contractual obligations to other cloud streaming providers such as Nvidia, Boosteroid, Nware, and Ubitus.
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