Microsoft teams up with Spain’s Nware to save Activision Blizzard purchase

Last Wednesday, the British CMA surprised by announcing the blocking of the purchase Activision Blizzard King To Microsoft. Lately, Redmonds seemed to be leaning towards the definition in their favor, but UK regulators ultimately said no, saying the purchase would hurt competition in the cloud gaming market. For this reason, the Americans quickly came to sign a new agreementin this case with know.

Microsoft’s new measure is clearly aimed at adding new tools to the CMA decision appeal process. And also to prevent British resolve from swaying acquisition verdicts by the European Commission and the US Federal Trade Commission.

Nware is a cloud gaming platform. Spanish descent with which Microsoft committed to releasing its games for the Xbox – and ultimately Activision Blizzard – within 10 years. was his own Brad Smiththe president of the American company, who confirmed the new link in a statement posted on Twitter.

“Microsoft and European cloud gaming platform Nware have signed a 10-year agreement to bring Xbox-developed PC games to their platform via streaming, as well as Activision Blizzard games when the acquisition is complete. gaming segment, this new partnership, along with our other recent commitments, will make more popular games available on more cloud-based game streaming services than today,” the statement said.

Nware could be key for Microsoft to keep buying Activision Blizzard

Microsoft’s agreement with Nware could be considered a simple move to avoid the final block after buying Activision Blizzard. Something similar to what was said at the time about alliances with Nintendo to take away call of Duty on Switch or NVIDIA to bring your Xbox games to GeForce NOW.

Clearly, the people of Redmond had to act quickly to counter the impact of the British CMA’s veto. Recall that the company scored a mini-victory of sorts in the United Kingdom, when the regulators themselves recognized that the purchase of the Californian publisher did not pose a danger to competition on consoles.

However, the consolidation of Xbox Game Pass as a possible monopoly platform seems to continue to be worrisome. Will an alliance with Nware be enough for Microsoft to show that its interest is not to monopolize the cloud gaming market?

Phil Spencer, the leader of Xbox, shared Brad Smith’s statement with a short message. “We are moving forward at full speed to give gamers more ways to play their favorite games,” tweeted.

Let’s see how this story develops. As of now, Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, has said that the UK CMA veto it was irrational. In addition, he stated that they expect an expedited appeal process through the UK Competition Court of Appeal. However, the process may delay closing the purchase for several more months. The fact is that if the appeal is positive for Redmond, the case must be returned to the CMA for a new determination.

The next litmus test for buying Activision Blizzard will be less than a month. On May 22, the European Commission will announce whether it approves the acquisition or not. It will be interesting to analyze whether the new agreement with Nware will influence the decision of the EU executive.