Microsoft Signs Another Call of Duty Deal In Bid To Impress Regulators

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Microsoft announced Tuesday that it has signed a 10-year deal to bring its Xbox PC games to little-known Ukraine-based streaming platform Boosteroid. The move is being positioned in part to "mak[e] even more clear to regulators that our acquisition of Activision Blizzard will make Call of Duty available on far more devices than before," as Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith said in a statement. "If the only argument is that Microsoft is going to withhold Call of Duty from other platforms, and we've now entered into contracts that are going to bring this to many more devices and many more platforms, that is a pretty hard case to make to a court," Smith told The Wall Street Journal.

Started in 2017, Boosteroid boasts 4 million streaming customers using servers based in nine European countries and six US states. Those customers pay 7.50 euro per month to stream games from those servers to any smartphone, Windows/Mac/Linux-based PC, or Android TV device. Boosteroid currently links to users' accounts on other PC-based platforms -- including Steam, the Epic Games Store, Blizzard's Battle.net, EA's Origin, the Rockstar Game Launcher, and Wargaming -- and lets them play games from those services without having to install them on a local gaming PC. With this new deal, that access will expand to include games available through Microsoft's Xbox app on the PC.

Tread carefully

[Powercntrl]

Microsoft better watch their step in a game called Call of Duty. I hope they brought plenty of toilet paper.

No aquisition!

[wakeboarder]

Don't believe them regulators!

Re:

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Sony will never support this deal

[jonwil]

As of right now PlayStation players get CoD content that is either exclusive to PlayStation or timed exclusive to PlayStation. Even if Microsoft continues to make every single piece of CoD content available on PlayStation at exactly the same time as its available on XBOX, Sony still looses out because they no longer have the exclusivity.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

Whether Sony supports the deal or not is immaterial. What matters is whether their arguments are compelling. "I won't have exclusives any more so you can't buy that business" is not such an argument — in that case they would literally be arguing that Microsoft's purchase would reduce anticompetitive behavior... by Sony.

Hoping Europe isn't stupid.

[Anonymous Coward]

And rejects Microsoft's attempts to monopolize the gaming industry. Historically, many consoles have failed if third party game makers didn't support it, even if they were technologically superior.

Deals can be changed

[khchung]

What's the penalty is MS changed these deals after regulators approved the sale? Nothing*, so don't get your hopes up MS would do anything differently this time.

* - see the WhatsApp TOS change a few years ago for example, the change violated what Zuck promised when buying WhatsApp and FCC did nothing.

Yeah...

[TimothyHollins]

And if there's one company you can trust, it's Microsoft!

How Many Times Can Your Web Page Redirect?

[TranquilVoid]

The best argument against this acquisition is that World of Warcraft will eventually be made to require login with a Microsoft account.

CoD is the carrot.

[rykin]

It's likely that CoD will generate more revenue by being available on multiple platforms. CoD is currently the popular franchise of discussion, but it's not the only one Microsoft will acquire. More than likely, CoD will be sacrificed by Microsoft to make the other acquired IPs become console exclusives.

Re:

[tlhIngan]

It's likely that CoD will generate more revenue by being available on multiple platforms. CoD is currently the popular franchise of discussion, but it's not the only one Microsoft will acquire. More than likely, CoD will be sacrificed by Microsoft to make the other acquired IPs become console exclusives.

Yes, CoD can't be made console exclusive. Make it Xbox only would mean Microsoft is leaving millions or billions of dollars on the table. Xbox is #3 in CoD platform, after PlayStation and PC.

I don't think Mi

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