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Ryuu96 on 22 August 2023
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  • The agreement with Ubisoft has been structured so that Microsoft will still acquire the rights needed to honor fully its legal obligations under its commitments to the European Commission as well as its existing contractual obligations to other cloud game streaming providers, including Nvidia, Boosteroid, Ubitus, and Nware.

One thing I'm unsure on, do these specific companies still retain their worldwide rights or just EU? So does Nvidia, Boosteroid, Ubitus and Nware still have the ability to stream ABK content outside of the EU for free or will they now have to pay a fee to Ubisoft if they want them outside of EU? I'm reading it as either.

Option 1 - Microsoft is offering free streaming rights to any company to stream for free within the EU. Outside of the EU, companies will have to pay Ubisoft, including Nvidia, Boosteroid, Ubitus and Nware.

Option 2 - Microsoft is offering free streaming rights to any company to stream for free within the EU. Outside of the EU, companies will have to pay Ubisoft, excluding Nvidia, Boosteroid, Ubitus and Nware.

If it's Option 1 then I can't see Nvidia being happy about it, I think ultimately they'd still be in favour of the deal but they'll likely be annoyed at the CMA, as would Boosteroid, Ubitus and Nware. If it's Option 2 then any new companies would surely be annoyed that Nvidia, Boosteroid, Ubitus and Nware get an advantage in free licensing rights worldwide while they have to pay outside of EU.

The CMA is so bad at this, the EU remedy was by far the best, a free license to any Cloud service that wanted it, which applied worldwide because Microsoft chose to make it apply worldwide, over a 10 year period, but because the CMA's ego got ahead of it, they'll now all be paying for licensing rights outside of the EU.

That's if Ubisoft even decides to sell them to other companies, that's if other companies can even afford what Ubisoft asks for. If the CMA wanted they could have just extended Microsoft's EU remedy to 15 years but nah, lets make the deal worse overall for Cloud Companies. Option 2 is the best case scenario but even that screws over any new companies entering the market.

Me? I couldn't give a shit about xCloud/Cloud Streaming so I don't give a damn but this is hilarious. Brexit stays losing, EU stays winning.