Microsoft’s proposed takeover of Activision Blizzard has been impossible to ignore in the tech and gaming worlds since news of it broke way back in January 2022.
Sony have – and continue to – vehemently oppose the takeover, claiming it will affect competition and risk lowering the quality of Activision Blizzard games on PlayStation consoles. In spite of the outpouring of concern, Microsoft and their CEO, Phil Spencer, look determined to see the acquisition through.
On March 15, Spencer announced a new Microsoft partnership with a “cloud gaming” company that will allow them to stream both PC and Activision Blizzard titles in the future.
Confirming the news via a tweet, Spencer said: “Microsoft and UbitusKK, a leading cloud gaming provider, have signed a 10-year partnership to stream Xbox PC Games as well as Activision Blizzard titles after the acquisition closes. Our commitment is to give more players, more choice.”
Ubitus describes itself as a “cloud gaming enabler, helps Telco and Major Game company to build their own cloud gaming platform.” It is based in Tokyo, Japan and already boasts some huge names from the gaming world, with their clients and partners webpage confirming their work with Capcom, 2K and 505Games.
It means that, for the next decade, Activision Blizzard and Xbox PC games will be streamable via cloud gaming. Cloud gaming refers to offloading game processing data to remote servers via the internet, instead of relying on hardware or a console to process the information. It is designed to save space and make the whole gaming process far easier and more efficient.
Ubitus is also a proponent of non-fungible tokens – better known as NFTs – in video games. These tokens exist virtually and look like growing their involvement in the video gaming world. Microsoft’s partnership certainly indicates they believe NFTs have a space in gaming moving forwards.
The cloud gaming company put out their own statement responding to Spencer’s announcement. They said: “We’re honored to establish a 10-year partnership with Microsoft for players to stream Xbox PC Games and Activision Blizzard titles pending the acquisition. This collaboration enhances our library with high profile game IPs, it also expands our library size to over 1,000 titles… keeping up our mission of bringing quality games to more platforms and players in more countries.”
The aforementioned acquisition of Activision Blizzard is still up in the air, but Spencer’s tweets reaffirm his confidence that it will go through and proceed as Microsoft hope. A UK CMA ruling is expected towards the end of April.
Joe Craven
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