Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O) inked a 10-year contract with Nware to deliver Xbox and Activision Blizzard (ATVI.O) titles to the Spanish cloud-gaming platform on Friday, days after Britain vetoed its $69 billion takeover of the “Call of Duty” creator.
Microsoft’s latest attempt to allay concerns that its acquisition of Activision will hurt cloud gaming competition, which was why the Competition and Markets Authority vetoed gaming’s largest merger, is the agreement.
“While it’s still early for the emerging cloud segment in gaming, this new partnership combined with our other recent commitments will make more popular games available on more cloud game streaming services than they are today,” Microsoft President Brad Smith stated.
Valve Corp, Nvidia (NVDA.O), and Boosteroid have struck similar accords with Xbox, which wants to challenge CMA’s judgment.
It gave Sony, a vociferous opponent of the arrangement, a 10-year “Call of Duty” license in exchange for bringing the multi-billion dollar series to Nintendo’s Switch.
On Wednesday, the CMA stated Microsoft owned Xbox, Windows, and Azure and controlled 60%–70% of worldwide cloud gaming services.
The regulator halted the largest technology acquisition, Activision. Europe will decide by May 22. The FTC also wants to stop it. In U.S. premarket trade, Microsoft shares fell while Activision rose 0.2%.
