Microsoft has announced a 10-year partnership with the European cloud gaming platform Nware: the contract has been signed and the tech giant now has one more site to host games. Previously, Microsoft entered into similar deals with cloud gaming platforms GeForce Now and Boosteroid. Even after blocking the Activision Blizzard deal, the corporation does not give up on the goal of gaining maximum share of the cloud gaming market.
Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, announced the deal on Twitter, according to VentureBeat. According to the executive, the company sees the deal as “an opportunity to make more games available to users on more platforms”:
“It’s too soon to consider cloud gaming fully developed, and this new partnership, combined with our other recent commitments, will bring popular games to more cloud game streaming services than it currently does.”
The news that Microsoft will host PC games on the Nware platform comes just days after UK regulators blocked Microsoft’s acquisition of game developer Activision Blizzard for $69.
The reason was fears about competition in the market, although during the discussions there were versions that the threat is not as big as it seems. Microsoft said it would appeal the decision.
The corporation assured the regulator that there was no need to fear a monopoly. After all, it agrees to provide “a remedy designed to offset the loss of competition with a set of obligations that would regulate their behavior and ways of doing business for ten years.”
The commission concluded that even this would not restore “competitive momentum that would have been lost by the merger.” Now, Microsoft’s share of the cloud gaming market is about 60-70%.
At the same time, the tech giant has deals to stream games on platforms as big as GeForce Now and Boosteroid. This also became a reason for the regulator to block the deal.
Since the corporation will retain revenue from all Activision transactions on other platforms, “cloud-based game streaming services will eventually not be competitors of Microsoft Game Pass Ultimate, but Microsoft customers.”
Author:
Ekaterina Alipova
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
