Microsoft has announced its latest attempt to adjust its acquisition of Activision Blizzard in order to satisfy regulators in the UK. The company has entered into a partnership with Ubisoft, which will see cloud streaming rights for all current and new Activision Blizzard games transferred to Ubisoft over the next 15 years.
This move is a response to a block by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which aimed to prevent the Microsoft and Activision Blizzard merger because the joint entity would have too much power in the cloud gaming space. In an internal memo obtained by The Verge, Xbox’s Phil Spencer reportedly confirmed such, saying, “To address the concerns about the impact of the proposed acquisition on cloud game streaming raised previously by the UK Competition and Markets Authority, we are modifying the transaction to acquire a narrower set of rights.”
Under this new restructured transaction, Microsoft won’t be able to offer Activision Blizzard games exclusively on Xbox Cloud Gaming or to control the licensing terms of those games for competing services. Ubisoft will also compensate Microsoft for the cloud streaming rights to Activision Blizzard’s games, and Ubisoft will also be able to offer those same games to cloud gaming services running on non-Windows systems.