Shortly after Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard hit a major roadblock, the former has signed yet another 10-year deal.
Earlier this week, a UK government agency ruled against Microsoft's attempted acquisition, arguing it would ultimately hurt competition, particularly among cloud gaming spaces. Now, Microsoft president Brad Smith has announced the signing of another 10-year deal with cloud gaming platform Nware.
Microsoft and European cloud gaming platform Nware have signed a 10-year agreement. Our statement here: pic.twitter.com/GWoSBg63P6April 28, 2023
Specifically, the deal is meant to help stream both Microsoft's PC games, as well as Activision Blizzard games on cloud devices, should the deal actually close. This is just the latest in a comically long line of 10-year deals Microsoft has signed with various partners, all of which hinge on the acquisition actually going ahead.
- With Indiana Jones and Forza Horizon 5 ports, Phil Spencer isn't "trying to move" Nintendo Switch and PS5 players "over to Xbox anymore"
- Despite "a rocky couple of years," analyst reckons Xbox's console war is "actually looking pretty bright" - "If you look at the PlayStation sales chart, you see a lot of Microsoft on there"
Microsoft has signed a deal to put Call of Duty on Nintendo platforms for a decade, for example, should the deal close. In actual fact, when the CMA delivered its ruling on the acquisition earlier this week, it decreed that the Nintendo Switch wasn't capable of running Call of Duty.
It's getting a little difficult to keep track of the number of decade-long deals Microsoft has signed with other gaming companies in recent weeks. Nware marks at least the fifth effort in a strategy that has definitely drawn the attention of the internet in the past few months, as it's become increasingly clear Microsoft would sign a deal with just about anyone to get this acquisition over the line.
As for the future of the acquisition though, this isn't the end for Microsoft's attempted purchase, as Microsoft and Activision have said they'll appeal the merger obstruction.
To catch up with everything that's happened so far, here's the Microsoft Xbox Activision deal explained.
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