Yeah, that's a shame that there are no Gamepass plans right now. I wish Xbox would have gone ahead and signed a deal here regardless of the state of the acquisition. Doesn't seem likely that the acquisition will be approved by all regulators until after the game's launch in June, if it is approved at all, so unless Xbox goes ahead and signs a deal after UK and EU hopefully approve it next month, on the grounds that FTC will likely lose in court, I don't see it hitting Gamepass until after launch. I guess I'll keep my Diablo 4 preorder I got for the beta access, $70 is alot to spend on a game, but at least it's a big game of 40-50 hours just to complete the story according to Blizzard, with 150 dungeons (each bigger than the Diablo 3 dungeons at up to 30 minutes in size and each with a boss), PvP, other end game content such as loot farming to min/max, and of course lots of replayability with 5 classes at launch and account wide rewards that transfer to new characters. 

Diablo IV on Game Pass day one would cost a crazy amount, it would make all their other deals so far look like indie payments, Lol.

Few issues with it aside from that, one being that Activision have straight up said to regulators in an effort to pass the deal that they don't care about Game Pass, that without this acquisition, Activision-Blizzard titles will never launch day one into Game Pass or similar services, to suddenly do a deal would show they lied to regulators and that these benefits of this acquisition could happen without Microsoft owning ABK.

Other is the cost and the last is that Activision-Blizzard is likely being honest in that they don't believe in these services, in the same way that Take-Two has made very clear over the years, not all publishers are onboard with Game Pass day one and you'd have to offer them an extreme amount of money to get them onboard.

Activision has to operate business as usual, until the acquisition actually closes. Microsoft could take a risk and offer them an amount too good to say no to on the confidence that the deal will pass anyway and ABK will come under them, money included, but at this stage that is a decent risk on top of the $3bn they're going to owe Activision, Lol.

Although CMA have said they don't care about the Game Pass market and are only concerned about Console exclusivity and Cloud but I don't know if it's wise still to basically show that you lied to CMA and other regulators, Lol. Might not cause them to bring up a Subscription market cause for concern since they've already dropped that angle but it could make them doubt the usefulness of Microsoft's Nvidia/Nintendo contracts.

Anyone else think inXile should run Xbox marketing?

For real... Their out of nowhere tweets are just hilarious, I love them so much :D

Microsoft Announces Partnership With Cloud Gaming Provider Boosteroid to Bring More Games to More Players Around the World

Through a new 10-year agreement to support Boosteroid’s leading Ukrainian software development team, Microsoft will bring Xbox PC games, as well as Activision Blizzard titles including “Call of Duty,” to the largest independent cloud gaming provider in the world

KYIV, Ukraine, and REDMOND, Wash. — March 14, 2023 — Microsoft Corp. and Boosteroid on Tuesday announced a 10-year agreement to bring Xbox PC games to Boosteroid’s cloud gaming platform. Boosteroid, which has its software development team in Ukraine, recently surpassed 4 million users globally and has become the largest independent cloud gaming provider in the world. The agreement will also enable Activision Blizzard PC titles to be streamed by Boosteroid customers after Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard closes.

When combined with other partnerships recently announced by Microsoft, this means popular franchises such as “Call of Duty” will surpass more than 150 million additional players, and make games built by Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda and Activision Blizzard playable on multiple cloud gaming services and subscriptions.

“We believe in the power of games to bring people together. That’s why Xbox is committed to give everyone more ways to play their favorite games, across devices,” said Phil Spencer, CEO of Gaming, Microsoft. “Bringing Xbox PC games to Boosteroid members, including Activision Blizzard titles such as ‘Call of Duty’ once the deal closes, is yet another step in realizing that vision.”

“Boosteroid shares Microsoft’s vision of bringing games to as many people, places and platforms as possible. It has long been our goal to provide gamers with an opportunity to enjoy their favorite titles on any device close at hand,” said Ivan Shvaichenko, Boosteroid CEO. “Today’s announcement is yet another step in this direction. Also, with our development team based in Ukraine, we appreciate Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to Ukraine, and we will be working together on an initiative supporting our local game development community to invest further in the economic recovery of the country.”

Boosteroid has operated since 2017 and has its research and development operations in Ukraine, based mostly in Kyiv and Kharkiv. Despite having two offices in Kharkiv damaged by Russian missile attacks, the company has continued to innovate and grow during the past 13 months of war. Since the beginning of 2023 alone, it has announced new steps to bring added cloud-based gaming services to the Mac, Chromebooks, Android set-top boxes and LG TVs. It offers cloud game streaming through both browser-based and dedicated applications, including for Windows, Linux, Android, Android TV and the macOS.

“Microsoft partnering with Boosteroid is welcome news and further evidence of the company’s ongoing support for Ukraine,” said Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation. “Boosteroid’s Ukrainian dev team has built a world-class streaming platform under the most challenging circumstances and demonstrates the ingenuity and creativity of our citizens and local game developers.”

In addition to Ukraine itself, Boosteroid now serves gamers in the United States, United Kingdom and countries across the European Union. It operates through data center operations located in six U.S. states, including Microsoft’s home state of Washington, as well as in the U.K., France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Slovakia, Romania, Ukraine and Serbia.

The gaming community is a vibrant part of Ukraine’s software ecosystem. Microsoft recently added support for the Ukrainian language for the Xbox console dashboard, PC and mobile apps. In spring 2023, Microsoft will launch PC Game Pass in Ukraine.

“This partnership builds on the $430 million in technology and financial assistance we have provided Ukraine since Russia’s unlawful invasion, and it exemplifies the steps we will continue to take to support Ukraine’s 160,000 software developers,” said Brad Smith, Microsoft Vice Chair and President. “It also adds to our recent agreements with Nintendo and NVIDIA, making even more clear to regulators that our acquisition of Activision Blizzard will make ‘Call of Duty’ available on far more devices than before.”

About Boosteroid

Boosteroid is the largest global independent cloud gaming provider which enables one-click access to PC video games across devices and platforms. With Boosteroid users run games they own on almost any PC, laptop, smartphone or smart TV. Boosteroid provides a high-end remote gaming desktop where games are actually rendered and then streamed back to the user device over the Internet. For this, Boosteroid utilises custom hardware designed together with leading technology companies like ASUS and Intel. The GPU-infrastructure that Boosteroid owns is located across Europe in 12 data centers of the UK, France, Spain, Italy, Romania, Serbia, Sweden, Slovakia and Ukraine; and across the USA in 6 data centers of different states. Such a wide servers’ net allows Boosteroid to deliver low-latency cloud gaming to millions of users globally.

Microsoft Announces Partnership With Cloud Gaming Provider Boosteroid to Bring More Games to More Players Around the World

Wow the Boosteroid story is so nice on so many front , seriously hats off to MS on this one.