Microsoft is restructuring its proposed Activision Blizzard deal to transfer cloud gaming rights for current and new Activision Blizzard games to Ubisoft. The transfer of rights is designed to appease regulators in the UK that are concerned about the impact Microsoft’s proposed $68.7 billion deal will have on cloud gaming competition. The restructured deal has triggered a new regulatory investigation in the UK that could last until October 18th.
Ubisoft get the non-windows streaming rights to Activision games… so what happens with any Acti games that don’t have a PS5 or a Switch port? That means Microsoft maintain exclusivity on a title purely by not porting it to other consoles.
They’ll definitely port Call of Duty and likely any other multiplayer titles, but I can’t see them porting any single player games or new IPs they develop.
From the article:
“Ubisoft will also be able, for a fee, to require Microsoft to adapt Activision’s titles to operating systems other than Windows, such as Linux, if it decides to use or license out the cloud streaming rights to Activision’s titles to a cloud gaming service that runs a non-Windows operating system.”
If Ubi is willing to pay a fee, they can force Microsoft to adapt any ActiBlizz games they want to another operating system for cloud gaming purposes.
Didn’t spot that at all, thanks for pointing it out. I can see them just developing with other platforms in mind then, unless that fee is large enough to cover all the porting costs involved.
When did the last PC only Activison game come out?
is xbox arguably enough windows?
i’d say no. many people that own an xbox don’t see it as a windows device
Xbox runs a modified version of Windows. Its a Windows device. It doesn’t matter if “many people that own it don’t see it as a Windows device.”
ik it runs windows, but it is a modified version. if I can’t run windows products out of the box, I wouldn’t say it’s a windows device.
Xbox OS is a modified version of I think Windows NT, and UWP (Universal Windows Programs) versions of software that is in the Xbox store can run on it.
It is a Windows device.
I completely understand it runs windows at its core. no one is arguing otherwise. im simply stating an xbox isn’t windows enough. I can’t go on the web browser and start installing whatever I want on an xbox while i can on a windows pc. I have to go through a curated store.
to me, xbox is not a windows device and I wouldn’t recommend anyone looking to purchase a desktop pc to buy an xbox because it’s missing many features found only on windows
I mean, thats your opinion, but is not factually correct.
This demonstrates a pretty foundational misunderstanding of what a Windows device is. From your view, the only thing that is a Windows device is one that runs pure desktop Windows OS, which is not correct.
In 2009, the iTG xpPhone was a smartphone that ran embedded Windows XP. It had every feature that a desktop with XP had. Now, would you recommend that phone as a replacement for a desktop computer, since it has every feature a desktop computer has? If you were a moron, perhaps. But since I think you aren’t a moron, why wouldn’t you make that recommendation?
Application. A person uses a computer differently than they use a phone. And a person uses an Xbox console differently than they use a desktop computer. The Xbox cannot and should not replace a desktop computer, because it is designed for an entirely different purpose. The Xbox has the primary goal of gaming, and is built around that. It doesnt need every feature of Windows, just the ones that facilitate gaming. So the OS is streamlined for that. But it is still a Windows device. It is not a Linux device, or an Apple device. It is a device built on Windows, just like desktops with Windows OS, the xpPhone, and any other device that is built with a Windows based operating system.
Any device which is a Windows device can be transformed into a non-Windows device simply by removing all of its Windows components. Doing this to an Xbox would mean it would no longer function, since nobody has created an alternate OS for Xbox AFAIK.
Tho legally I think could considered to be, cause it runs windows core and hyper-v