Ubisoft and Activision Blizzard’s deal for cloud gaming rights, explained

13.10.2023 - 18:21 / theverge.com / Tom Warren / Ubisoft

By Tom Warren, a senior editor covering Microsoft, PC gaming, console, and tech. He founded WinRumors, a site dedicated to Microsoft news, before joining The Verge in 2012.

Microsoft’s giant Activision Blizzard deal is complete, and it means Ubisoft has now obtained cloud streaming rights for Call of Duty, all other current Activision Blizzard games, and any coming over the next 15 years. It was a key concession from Microsoft that helped get the deal over the line with UK regulators. But what does it all mean?

Ubisoft will now control where Call of Duty and other Activision Blizzard games show up on cloud gaming services, with the exception of EU countries and the various cloud gaming deals Microsoft signed previously. If you live in a country that’s part of the European Economic Area (EEA) — which includes EU countries and also Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway — then you’ll get a free license to stream via “any cloud game streaming services of their choice” all current and future Activision Blizzard PC and console games that you have purchased.

If you’re outside the EEA, then it’s up to Ubisoft which services get cloud streaming rights for Activision Blizzard games, including licensing these back to Microsoft to include in Xbox Cloud Gaming. In theory, Ubisoft could deny Microsoft a license for future Activision Blizzard games, but in reality, that’s extremely unlikely to happen. Microsoft will need to pay a wholesale arrangement fee to license Activision Blizzard games for its cloud services, though.

It’s also legally possible for Ubisoft to offer Activision Blizzard games exclusively on certain cloud providers but, again, very unlikely. I say unlikely because unlike secret deals in the games industry for exclusivity or to keep games off Xbox Game Pass, everyone knows Ubisoft is controlling the rights here, and the company would face a backlash if it attempted to deny or block games from certain cloud services. Cloud providers will also still be offered a free license to stream these games in EU markets, thanks to the European Commission remedy.

A number of companies wanted the cloud gaming rights for Activision Blizzard games and had to essentially pitch the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK. The interview-like process meant the CMA picked out the companies that would work best with its concerns over cloud gaming, and then it was up to Microsoft to ultimately decide on which company to restructure its deal with.

“We’ve been active in the streaming space for a long time and that’s one of the reasons Microsoft came to us; we were the first studio that Google worked with for Stadia; the first company that Amazon worked with for Luna; and we’ve been partners with NVIDIA GeForce Now for