Microsoft seems to LOVE 10-year deals, as they’ve just made and signed another one, this time with Boosteroid, to bolster cloud support for PC gaming.
The 10-year deal between Microsoft and Boosteroid brings Xbox PC games to Boosteroid’s cloud gaming platform, adding more cloud support for the litany of Xbox games provided on PC. The Ukrainian-based cloud company has seen a recent surge in users, surpassing four million worldwide, making it a massive company in the independent cloud gaming space. Oddly, Head of Xbox Phil Spencer mentioned the deal in a tweet today while continuing to bring the impending Activision Blizzard merger details into ANOTHER 10-year deal, akin to the one offered to Nintendo and Valve back in February.
Spencer also mentions, “We believe in the power of games to bring people together. That’s why Xbox is committed to give everyone more ways to play their favourite games across devices,” supporting the deal.
Boosteroid CEO Ivan Shvaichenko echoed the sentiment with “Boosteroid shares Microsoft’s vision of bringing games to as many people, places and platforms as possible. It has long been our goal to provide gamers with an opportunity to enjoy their favourite titles on any device close at hand,” including “Today’s announcement is yet another step in this direction. Also, with our development team based in Ukraine, we appreciate Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to Ukraine, and we will be working together on an initiative supporting our local game development community to invest further in the economic recovery of the country.”
Boosteroid is a global cloud gaming enterprise that is fully functional in many countries, including the US, U.K., France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Slovakia, Romania, Ukraine and Serbia, allowing Xbox PC titles to reach a broader audience easier than before. Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith says “This partnership builds on the $430 million in technology and financial assistance we have provided Ukraine since Russia’s unlawful invasion, and it exemplifies the steps we will continue to take to support Ukraine’s 160,000 software developers,” in support of Ukraine.
While the cloud gaming partnership seems like a hole-in-one for Microsoft, the deal is littered with inclusions of Activision Blizzard property when the proposed Microsoft merger still has yet to go through, so it remains to be seen as to whether this deal remains intact if the Activision deal fails, but fans will find out soon enough when the final bell tolls on the Microsoft merger. Fans can read the whole partnership agreement on the official Microsoft news site.
