In 2022, Microsoft announced its proposal to purchase Activision Blizzard, a major player in the video game publishing industry, for $68.7 billion. The company and its internal studios are responsible for several popular gaming franchises, including Call of Duty, Diablo, World of Warcraft, and Candy Crush Saga. However, Microsoft has encountered regulatory hurdles in the United States, United Kingdom, and European Union. Specifically, European regulators will determine whether to approve or reject the acquisition by April 11, 2023, which means that Microsoft’s ability to proceed with the acquisition will be determined in just a few weeks.
To make its games available beyond the Xbox gaming consoles, Microsoft has been forming partnerships with other gaming platforms. Last month, Microsoft announced agreements with Nintendo and Nvidia’s GeForce Now service.
Today, Microsoft added a third partner and stated that its games will be accessible on Boosteroid for the next decade. Boosteroid is a smaller cloud gaming service, comparable to Nvidia GeForce Now, that operates by rendering games on gaming-optimized servers in a data center close to the user. The stream is then sent to the user’s display, and commands from the controller are transferred to the server.
Unlike Netflix-style subscription models, Boosteroid users must purchase individual games on online PC stores such as Steam and the Epic Games Store. The company charges a monthly fee for access to its servers, but users retain ownership of their purchased games even if they cancel their subscription.
Boosteroid, a cloud gaming service founded in Ukraine, offers a resolution of 1080p at 60 frames per second, but it doesn’t disclose its servers’ hardware specifications. The monthly subscription fee for the service is €9.89, while the yearly fee is €89.99.
Boosteroid has servers located in various European countries such as France, Italy, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, and the UK, as well as the United States in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Texas, Illinois, Florida, and Washington. Since latency plays a crucial role in cloud gaming, proximity to a data center is crucial.
The company claims to have 4 million registered users, and the service is accessible through web browsers and dedicated applications for Windows, macOS, Android, Android TV, and Linux. Microsoft has not yet reached an agreement with Sony to make future Call of Duty games available on PlayStation consoles.
“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,” said Brad Smith, Microsoft Vice Chair and President. “It also adds to our recent agreements with Nintendo and NVIDIA, making even more clear to regulators that our acquisition of Activision Blizzard will make ‘Call of Duty’ available on far more devices than before.”
About Boosteroid
Boosteroid is a prominent cloud gaming provider, offering convenient one-click access to PC video games on various devices and platforms. Users can easily run their owned games on nearly any device, including PCs, laptops, smartphones, and smart TVs. By utilizing a high-end remote gaming desktop, Boosteroid renders games and streams them back to the user device over the internet. The company uses custom hardware designed in collaboration with industry leaders such as ASUS and Intel. Boosteroid owns GPU infrastructure located across Europe in 12 data centers spanning the UK, France, Spain, Italy, Romania, Serbia, Sweden, Slovakia, and Ukraine. Additionally, it has six data centers across different states in the USA. With a broad network of servers, Boosteroid delivers low-latency cloud gaming to millions of users worldwide.
You can read the the full article at Microsoft.com
