Microsoft Corp said Friday it signed a 10-year deal with Nware to bring Xbox and Activision Blizzard games to the Spanish cloud-gaming platform, days after Britain blocked a $69 billion bid to buy the games. call of duty.

The deal marks Microsoft’s latest attempt to allay concerns that its purchase of Activision will stifle competition in cloud gaming, which is the reason given by the UK Competition and Markets Authority for vetoing the biggest deal in the gaming sector.

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“While it’s still early days for the burgeoning cloud gaming segment, this new partnership, combined with our other recent commitments, will make more popular games available on more cloud gaming services than currently possible,” said Brad Smith, president of Microsoft.

The Xbox console maker, which plans to challenge the CMA decision, has signed similar agreements with owners of online gaming platforms such as Valve Corp, Nvidia and Boosteroid.

It’s also offering Sony – staunch opponents of the deal – a license to call of duty for 10 years, in line with a deal to bring the multi-billion dollar franchise to the Nintendo Switch.

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In its decision on Wednesday, the CMA said Microsoft owns an estimated 60% to 70% of global cloud gaming services, as well as competitive advantages, including ownership of Xbox, the Windows PC operating system, and cloud provider Azure.

Activision’s is the largest deal between technology companies that has been blocked by regulators. Europe will terminate the agreement before May 22. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is also trying to block it.

Microsoft shares were slightly lower in pre-US trading, while Activision shares were up 0.2%.

REUTERS

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