With the news of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard being official, Chris Early, Ubisoft's SVP, Strategic Partnerships & Business Development sat down with Ubisoft News to discuss what this acquisition meant for their streaming games service.
Chris explains that Ubisoft's deal with Activision Blizzard involves games that are currently available and also includes games released over the next 15 years. It also includes all DLC, both in-game content and downloadable DLC packs, expansions and add-ons.
The big question on the table for Chris was if Activision Blizzard games will be available to stream on Ubisoft+ in the future. This is what he had to say about it:
CE: From us, that's something that we'll see as time goes on and things evolve. Our expectation is that they will be on Ubisoft+, and then we have the rights to be able to license them individually to companies as well. Perhaps there’s a company somewhere in the world that wants to license those rights and add to the streaming service they have or start up a new streaming service, and I think that's going be part of the fun of the next 15 years or more of how streaming evolves. To clarify, 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. So, even after the terms of this deal come to an end, we will still have those rights and we will still be able to provide those games to people and companies throughout the world, so there are a lot of possibilities.
So while Activision Blizzard is changing owners, it is Chris Early's expectation that these games will still continue to release on Ubisoft's streaming service. Unless there is specific language in the deal with would nix any current agreements, it would seem that Ubisoft's expectations are going to continue.
Previous Microsoft acquisitions, like Bethesda's purchase, kept existing agreements in place. You can look towards games like Ghostwire Tokyo, which launched on the Playstation 5 and PC as a timed console exclusive despite the game, at the time of launch, being a Microsoft IP. With this example and how willing Microsoft is to "play nice in the sandbox", it would surprise me if the agreement with Ubisoft+ was terminated.
So no need to fret members of Ubisoft+, it seems you'll still get your Activision Blizzard games on the service no matter who owns the IP.
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