Microsoft proposes selling streaming rights to Activision-Blizzard games to Ubisoft – WGB, Home of AWESOME Reviews

The ongoing saga of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard has developed an intriguing new wrinkle -Microsoft has proposed selling the streaming rights of Activision Blizzard titles to Ubisoft.

Today the United Kingdom’s CMA, which remains the last big roadblock in Microsoft finally closing out their purchase of Activision Blizzard, announced that it was rejecting the original proposal. Microsoft had been trying to get them to revisit the deal because they believed the European Commission’s approval of the deal and the agreement with Sony to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation had altered the proposal enough.

The CMA however, disagreed. “decided that [Microsoft’s submissions] did not provide any basis for a change to the original prohibition decision”, and that today it was imposing “a Final Order which prohibits the original deal on a worldwide basis”.

The final piece of that paragraph is intriguing because to my, admittedly limited, legal knowledge the CMA can’t block it worldwide.

Regardless, Microsoft has already made an announcement regarding a new proposal which looks designed to tackle the CMA’s biggest gripe with the original deal, which was the presumed power Microsoft’s purchase would give them in the Cloud-streaming market. Microsoft’s answer is to sell the streaming rights for Activision Blizzard games to none other than Ubisoft.

“Today, we are taking another important step regarding this transaction,” Microsoft’s statement reads. “To address the concerns about the impact of the proposed acquisition on cloud game streaming raised by the UK Competition and Markets Authority, we are restructuring the transaction to acquire a narrower set of rights.

“This includes executing an agreement effective at the closing of our merger that transfers the cloud streaming rights for all current and new Activision Blizzard PC and console games released over the next 15 years to Ubisoft Entertainment SA, a leading global game publisher. The rights will be in perpetuity.

“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.

“As such, Microsoft today has notified the restructured transaction to the CMA and anticipates that the CMA review processes can be completed before the 90-day extension in its acquisition agreement with Activision Blizzard expires on October 18.

“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.”

It’s a huge compromise and one I really didn’t see coming. Plenty of speculation has been done about the deal and what Microsoft could do, but I honestly don’t think many people ever considered streaming rights being handed or sold to Ubisoft.

The cloud streaming market is still in its infancy and is held back by numerous factors such as latency and Internet infrastructure, but like all technology it is evolving rapidly and who knows what the streaming space might look like a decade from now? Ubisoft could find itself in an extremely powerful position, holding sole access to streaming the latest Call of Duty game to millions of TVs, phones, tablets and more.

The CMA has acknowledged the new proposal and has already begun investigating it.