Microsoft announced another 10-year agreement Wednesday morning with the Taiwan-based cloud gaming platform Ubitus, whose responsible for the cloud versions of Guardians of the Galaxy and Resident Evil Village on the Nintendo Switch. If the Activision Blizzard acquisition were to go through, Microsoft promises to bring Xbox PC games to Ubitus, including Activision Blizzard games like Call of Duty. It’s the second time this week that Microsoft entered an agreement with a cloud gaming platform, just yesterday Microsoft announced a similar agreement with Ukraine-based Boosteroid.
This announcement is the latest in Microsoft’s efforts to reassure industry competitors and government regulators of their concerns towards the ongoing Activision Blizzard acquisition. Sony alongside UK’s Competition Markets Authority (CMA) and the US’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC), have issued concerns around the deal since January 2022, claiming that Microsoft could render Activision Blizzard franchises exclusive on their platforms, harming competition.
Deals like the ones struck with Nintendo, NVIDIA, Boosteroid, and now Ubitus have been one of Microsoft’s latest remedies towards their concerns in showcasing their commitment in multi-platform releases. Microsoft has made repeated offers of the 10-Year deal to Sony, however, its competitor has yet to budge from its stance. Sony has claimed that Microsoft haven’t been forthcoming with the details of the deal. Recently, Sony claimed that Microsoft’s offered remedies would “…irreparably harm competition and innovation in the industry.” Sony says that Microsoft could raise the price of Call of Duty or even sabotage the game on PlayStation systems to purposefully release a bug-filled version on PlayStation systems.
The CMA’s final decision on the matter is set to arrive on April 26.