Ubisoft holds the rights to stream current Activision Blizzard games and those released in the next 15 years through Ubisoft+ in perpetuity.
Ubisoft has clarified a few of the details surrounding its deal with to stream Activision Blizzard games – which was a condition of Microsoft’s $68.7 billion takeover, completed earlier today.
In an interview posted on Ubisoft’s website, Chris Early, Ubisoft’s senior vice president of strategic partnerships and business development, said: “Taking on these rights allows Ubisoft to bring Activision Blizzard games like Call of Duty to Ubisoft+, as well as license the streaming access of these games to cloud gaming companies, service providers and console makers.”
As such, Ubisoft has the option to sell the rights to stream games like Call of Duty to other streaming services in the future, meaning Ubisoft+ might not always be the sole place to play them via cloud streaming.
Early then explained an unusual feature of the deal, which is that Ubisoft doesn’t have exclusive streaming rights in some regions. “Each local regulatory body had a different set of conditions under which they would allow Microsoft to make the transaction,” he said. “In the European Economic Area, the European Commission required Microsoft to allow cloud streaming services to let anybody who owns the games in that territory to play the Activision Blizzard games via streaming for free. For example, a company in France could come to Microsoft and say, ‘I want to stream the gameplay of Call of Duty to people who own Call of Duty already,’ and Microsoft is required to license those rights for free to that company so players can stream games they own. It’s known as ‘bring your own game,’ and that’s why the rights are non-exclusive in some regions.”
Early also clarified the extent of the deal, which includes games that have yet to be released. “All the games that are coming from Activision Blizzard in the next 15 years and those games that exist now, we have those streaming rights in perpetuity,” he said.
However, Early was non-commital when it came to answering exactly when Activision Blizzard games would appear on Ubisoft+. “We know players are excited for more games to come to Ubisoft+, and we will take the time we need to make sure that the back end fully supports the experience we want players to have,” he said. “Now that the deal is closed, the operational element can begin to kick off.”
Read more: Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal has finally closed
