Ubisoft CEO Discusses Acquisition of Activision Cloud Streaming Rights

[T0@st]

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) rejected a previous draft of Microsoft's proposed deal to merge with Activision Blizzard (to the tune of $69 billion). The expected summer completion date was missed due to this sole case of opposition—all of the other international regulatory bodies had approved a conglomeration of Xbox and Activision portfolios. Ubisoft later emerged as an unlikely knight in shining armor, since the UK CMA has provisionally approved freshly revamped conditions—it turns out that Microsoft had agreed to sell its cloud streaming rights to the French video game publisher. The Financial Times sat down with one of the company's co-founders—CEO Yves Guillemot—and discussed how cloud gaming will revolutionize the industry.

Guillemot was not asked to comment on how much his firm has agreed to spend—allegedly a one-off fee—on purchasing Activision Blizzard's cloud streaming rights (from Microsoft). He did discuss the inherent risk of embracing a relatively immature market technology: "When Netflix first said it was going to go into streaming, their shares fell a lot and they were widely criticized. Today, we see what they have become. It's going to be the same with video games, but it will take time. But when it takes off, it will happen very quickly...We strongly believe in the next five to 10 years, many games will be streamed and will also be produced in the cloud. That's what pushed us to go forward with the Microsoft deal." This looks to be an unusual move for Ubisoft, considering the rumors of a recent strategy shift in reaction to downturns in sales.




Insiders claim that company leadership is restructuring internal development teams around a smaller number of "core" franchises, along with a shelving of newer franchises and experimental projects. Ubisoft's weakened state upped gaming community speculation regarding a possible takeover from a rival publisher—last year Tencent shelled out $297 million for an 11% stake in Ubisoft. The Financial Times asked Guillemot about the current layout of shareholders—he replied: "We wanted to work with Tencent to ensure that the board had good control of the company's capital. But that doesn't stop the board from listening to proposals." Microsoft is bound to its agreement with the UK CMA—so a potential takeover of Ubisoft is strictly forbidden across a 15-year long period.

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[Devastator0]

Far out, these companies really need to just realise that Cloud Streaming/Gaming is dead and they shouldn't waste their time/money on it. People just aren't going to use it.

 

[dir_d]

Far out, these companies really need to just realise that Cloud Streaming/Gaming is dead and they shouldn't waste their time/money on it. People just aren't going to use it.

It could only work in some countries where Internet speeds are high and peering between networks has low latency. In other countries it would get quite expensive for Ubisoft, they would have to put a Datacenter at every edge ISP in every country just about to make it work.

 

[neatfeatguy]

Ubisoft thought their NFT idea was great....I think it may have been a better idea than trying to get into the game streaming service.

 

[Totally]

Far out, these companies really need to just realise that Cloud Streaming/Gaming is dead and they shouldn't waste their time/money on it. People just aren't going to use it.

It's just them they must see something we don't. Everyone else is either decrying old is new/the death of cloud, or quietly dipping out the back door and every in between after realizing cloud computing is only beneficial up to a point.

 

[Deleted member 177333]

Yep. I have the bandwidth for this and I'd never even entertain it. I'll find a new hobby before I ever stream games. I want my own hardware onsite, and I want any software / games I am using installed and stored locally on that hardware. If companies move away from that, then I'm out as far as any monetary engagement. Happy to pirate as needed and as it's available in those cases.

 

[Wye]

He is an idiot.
Game "streaming" is not the same as video streaming.
Also game streaming is not something new, a gazillion of companies tried it very hard in the last 15 years.
The current market share is estimated at 1%, with even those numbers inflated/fake.

For the companies it could be very profitable .. in theory ... but the customers don't want it.

Just let it die.

 

[KrazyT]

For the companies it could be very profitable .. in theory ... but the customers don't want it.

Maybe for now ...
I hope we will still have choice in 10 years.

 

[HisDivineOrder]

Game streaming is like that thing you feel you're juuuuuust about to do. You're so close. You can taste it. You're almost there. Just a little more and you'll have something incredible. But it never comes together and it won't ever come together. It's a pipe dream. It's like VR. Something that seems like an amazing idea until you realize almost half the population can't use VR without their stomach coming out their mouth. No matter what they do, no matter how hard they try, that basic human reflex--worse for some and better for others--is going to guarantee that it won't ever take off. It's just a little thing, really.

Game streaming and latency is going to doom the concept in much the same way. They'll never be able to put up enough servers or account for areas/regions that rely on Starlink or similar services with horrendous latency. Amusingly, I'm happy with that given how game ownership and game preservation would have been a nightmare in a world where companies thought they could rent you games from the cloud without you having any trace of access to said games files. Microsoft already tried with Game Pass and UWP-secured sections of Windows and it's proven to be annoying at best and storage-stealing at worst.

Microsoft sold those rights because they're meaningless. xCloud was a solution looking for a problem and Microsoft hasn't found it after years of searching. I expect the only reason they're still even doing xCloud is either because it's a selling point for Game Pass Ultimate (even though most never use it) or because they have some arrangement with Azure to use a certain amount of services to help justify them in the books.

 

[Vayra86]

I'm glad people have figured out game streaming is fail. Let's see how many more bubbles are gonna burst between now and next ten years, and then, as the smoke clears, PC gaming is probably still standing with a fresh line up of previously indie studios doing games as they need to be done.

Business as usual

 

[HairyLobsters]

Far out, these companies really need to just realise that Cloud Streaming/Gaming is dead and they shouldn't waste their time/money on it. People just aren't going to use it.

XBox cloud streaming is actually pretty good.

 

[Super XP]

Far out, these companies really need to just realise that Cloud Streaming/Gaming is dead and they shouldn't waste their time/money on it. People just aren't going to use it.

Cloud Streaming/Gaming in terms of PC gaming is dead, nobody wants to stream PC gaming because its demanding graphics. The mobile games like on phones is a different story, especially the NFT push which has gained traction via the Crypto verse. Anyhow, for me Steam is perfect, plus if I can I like buying the physical product unless there's a sale to be had.