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The new deal follows confirmation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) that the original deal would be blocked to protect innovation and choice in cloud gaming. In an unusual step, Microsoft had sought to revisit the CMA’s original prohibition decision, arguing that blocking the original deal was no longer appropriate in light of developments since the CMA issued its Final Report in April, including the acceptance of binding commitments by the European Commission and a licensing deal agreed between Sony and Microsoft.
The independent group which took the original decision reviewed these submissions and decided that they did not provide any basis for a change to the original prohibition decision. To give final legal effect to that decision, the CMA has today imposed a Final Order which prohibits the original deal on a worldwide basis.
FWIW Microsoft did try to make the CMA approve the deal without this structural remedy by pointing out the European Commission deals and Sony deal, the CMA refused that offer and upheld their original decision so Microsoft has now proposed this structural remedy which has triggered a phase 1 investigation as it's classed as a new deal.
Under the restructured deal, Microsoft will not acquire cloud rights for existing Activision PC and console games, or for new games released by Activision during the next 15 years (this excludes the European Economic Area). As part of this new deal, Activision’s cloud streaming rights outside of the EEA will be sold to a rival, Ubisoft, who will be able to license out Activision’s content to any cloud gaming provider.
Lmao! The CMA made the deal worse for everyone not just in the UK but outside of the UK as well! Excluding the European Union, everyone else gets a worse deal, haha. If a Cloud Company wanted the rights before CMA screwed everything up, Microsoft were offering them for free on a worldwide basis, now they have to pay Ubisoft for them, including Microsoft.
Insane that the CMA is dictating what America and the rest of the world gets, outside of the European Union. EU/EC stays winning.
Funny thing is, Microsoft will have to pay for the rights to stream them on xCloud but then Ubisoft still has to pay Microsoft for some sort of compensation, so Microsoft still gets paid a little, although they are running infrastructure as well. Makes me wonder how much Ubisoft will charge other Cloud Streaming companies...Ubisoft if they really wanted to could just keep them exclusive to Ubisoft+, Lol.
Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 22 August 2023
