Microsoft announces long-term partnership with Boosteroid

Xbox has recently announced that they were partnering with the cloud gaming company 'Boosteroid' to bring their library of first-party PC games to a new audience of gamers. As a little background, Boosteroid is a Ukraine-based cloud streaming service that is the biggest independent cloud gaming provider worldwide. That means they bring big franchises to the world of streaming- increasing the potential player base of each exponentially. Xbox has claimed that this partnership will mean that their games will 'surpass more than 150 million additional players'.

This whole deal essentially means that any first-party Xbox PC games from developers such as Obsidian and Bethesda will be made available via the cloud on any device that can handle it. What makes this news even bigger is that Xbox has confirmed that the library of games available will include Activision Blizzard franchises such as Call of Duty once the deal is finally complete. This will make the biggest franchises available across multiple streaming subscriptions and cloud gaming services. It's a smart move that expands Xbox's player base even more than before- and follows a pattern by Microsoft to expand their customer base previously seen with services such as Game Pass and streaming capabilities for many Xbox third-party games

In a message from Boosteroid in the announcement article, CEO Ivan Shvaichenko expressed his excitement about the 10 year partnership:

"Boosteroid shares Microsoft's vision of bring games to as many people, places and platforms as possible. It has long been out goal to provide gamers with an opportunity to enjoy their favorite titles on any device…today's announcement is another step in this direction"

The partnership will bring cloud gaming services to countries that have so far lacked this capability- starting with Ukraine this spring. This is a big lean into the cloud gaming space for Microsoft and shows that they are doubling down on their streaming investments. Considering Google's similar public devotion and support for the cloud gaming industry despite the failure of Stadia, it seems that the tech giants still see more potential and room for innovation in this space. Considering the 10 year length of this deal, its clear that Xbox is in this for the long haul.