As part of Microsoft's ongoing efforts to convince regulators of its planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard, it has announced a 10-year partnership with a streaming platform unlike any it has ever encountered: Boosteroid and Ubitus.

Brief summary: Sony is not comfortable with Microsoft's ownership of Activision Blizzard. The main reason for this is that they are concerned that the "Call of Duty" series will be exclusive to the Xbox console. To counter these concerns, Microsoft offered Sony a 10-year contract (open in new tab) to continue releasing the series on PlayStation, but Sony refused. To show its seriousness, Microsoft then signed 10-year Call of Duty contracts with various other big names in the business, including Steam (opens in new tab), Nintendo, and Nvidia (opens in new tab).

While it has reportedly had a positive effect (opens in new tab) on EU regulators, Microsoft has yet to let off the gas pedal. However, with the major platforms (with the exception of Sony) now in place, it has now announced a deal with streaming platform Boosteroid (opens in new tab) (which, on March 14, announced that once the acquisition is completed, it will bring Xbox PC games, including Activision-Blizzard games, to its (which announced a deal on March 14 to bring Xbox PC games, including Activision-Blizzard games, to its platform once the acquisition is completed) and smaller operators such as Ubitus (open in new tab), which announced a similar deal today.

Both companies are well-established: Japan-based Ubitus was founded in 2013 and Ukraine's Boosteroid in 2016. However, in terms of reach and recognition, they are not in the same league as GeForce Now or Xbox Live. Still, it has received extensive treatment from Microsoft executives, including Xbox boss Phil Spencer and Microsoft president Brad Smith.

On Twitter, Smith touted the geopolitical implications of the Boosteroid deal, going so far as to call it "a victory for Ukraine and the many talented software developers who work there." To be fair, so did Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation. [Microsoft's partnership with Boosteroid is welcome news and further evidence of the company's continued support for Ukraine. Boosteroid's Ukrainian development team has built a world-class streaming platform under the most difficult circumstances, demonstrating the ingenuity and creativity of citizens and local game developers."

This comment is particularly interesting: with Ukraine currently vying for membership in the European Union, visible support for Ukrainian business and industry in the face of continued Russian aggression would probably not hurt Microsoft's chances of getting the EU to approve its acquisition of Activision and Blizzard. would not hurt its chances.

Although the Ubitus deal has no comparable "foreign affairs" context, Smith leaves no doubt about what the deal means for Microsoft. He tweeted (opens in new tab), "With every step Microsoft acquires Activision, it becomes clearer that we can bring 'Call of Duty' to more players on more platforms. More choices for everyone." [At least until the CMA and FTC drum up a deal for Activision Blizzard, the deal with the relatively unknown platform will continue: last week, Sony told the CMA that in order to encourage gamers to move to Xbox, Microsoft will be offering a future PlayStation (opens in new tab) Last week, Sony issued a statement to the CMA hinting that it may sabotage Microsoft's future release of "Call of Duty" on the PlayStation (open in new tab) console in order to encourage gamers to migrate to Xbox.