2023-08-22 16:39:59
Microsoft is restructuring its multi-billion dollar purchase agreement of the giant Activision Blizzard, the largest in the history of the video game. The computer company will transfer to Ubisoft the cloud gaming rights from the creator of ‘Call of Duty‘ y ‘World of Warcraft‘, a movement that seeks to appease the concerns of regulators of the United Kingdom.
On April 26, the British Competition and Markets Authority blocked the acquisition of AB for almost 70,000 million dollars (about 62,649 million euros) considering that it could alter the market for cloud gaming, harming competition, innovation and users. The British decision was a major setback for Microsoft, which made the purchase proposal in January 2022.
“To address concerns about the impact of the proposed acquisition on cloud gaming streaming raised by the UK Markets and Competition Authority, we are restructuring the transaction to acquire a smaller set of rights,” he said. the president of microsoft Brad Smith. Now, the UK regulator must investigate the new purchase proposal and issue a response on October 18.
The Ubisoft+ lineup is expanding!
We’re excited to announce a new agreement that will bring Activision Blizzard games to Ubisoft+ via streaming upon the completion of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard!
We’ll also be licensing the games to a range of cloud streaming… pic.twitter.com/sZTnEFJedC
— Ubisoft (@Ubisoft) August 22, 2023
Ubisoft, benefited
Microsoft’s new proposal will benefit the French company Ubisoft, recipient of cloud streaming rights “to all current and new Activision Blizzard games released for PC and consoles over the next 15 years.” Among the company’s portfolio of games, the aforementioned ‘Call of Duty’ and ‘World of Warcraft’ stand out, but also other reputable sagas such as ‘Diablo‘, ‘Candy Crush‘, ‘Crash Bandicoot‘, ‘Tony Hawk‘ o ‘Guitar Hero‘. Those rights will be “in perpetuity,” according to Smith.
This proposal means that, if approved, Microsoft will not be able to launch these and other new games exclusively on Microsoft’s cloud gaming services. Xbox, your console. Ubisoft will pay the company to be able to own those rights and make the video games available to the public through its platform, available for PC, Amazon Luna, PlayStation and the same Xbox.
However, Ubisoft will only control those rights outside the European Union (EU), since the community regulators did give the go-ahead to the merger and did not show the same concern about a possible concentration of the market that would affect the consumer. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) denounced the process, but its appeal was rejected by the courts. The agreements that Microsoft has woven in other parts of the planet will be blocked until the open case in the United Kingdom is not decided, which is expected from mid-October.
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