Sales of streaming rights by Microsoft and Activision will result in the largest video game deal.

Activision, the company behind "Call of Duty," will sell its streaming rights to Ubisoft Entertainment in a new effort to get Britain's anti-trust authority to approve its $69 billion acquisition to Microsoft.

Early in 2022, Microsoft announced the largest gaming contract in history. However, the transaction was halted by Britain's competition watchdog because of worries that the American tech giant would have too much influence over the burgeoning cloud gaming sector.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said on Tuesday that it had maintained its original decision to block the acquisition after months of back and forth, requiring Microsoft to submit fresh terms.

Microsoft will not be able to solely control the licencing conditions for competing services under the terms of the revised agreement, nor will it be able to offer Activision games like "Overwatch" and "Diablo" on its own cloud streaming service, Xbox Cloud Gaming.

Instead, Activision will sell the cloud streaming rights to all of its current PC and console titles as well as any new games it releases in the next 15 years to French gaming rival Ubisoft. Globally, that will be the case, but not in Europe, where Brussels had already approved the first agreement.

Ubisoft will receive a non-exclusive licence for Activision's rights in Europe so that it may sell those titles there as well.

The CMA stated that it will review the new agreement using its standard procedure, with Phase 1 of the process completing on October 18. The CMA may launch a considerably more extensive Phase 2 investigation if it continues to be concerned about the effect on competition.

The significant settlement reached by Microsoft, which might have provided a comparable remedy during the initial investigation, is a victory for the British Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which has been tough on tech agreements since it became a standalone regulator following Britain's exit from the European Union.

The American Federal Trade Commission opposed the agreement as well, but it was unable to stop it. However, the European Union approved it after acknowledging Microsoft's promises to licence Activision's games for use on other platforms.

Microsoft stated that Ubisoft will purchase the rights through a one-time payment and a wholesale price system based on the market, with the ability to accommodate usage-based pricing.

(Sources: investing.com, reuters.com)