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Activision Blizzard & Google Enter Multi-Year Strategic Relationship.

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

There’s been a brand new multi-year strategic relationship to power player experiences between Activision Blizzard and Google that has been announced. This will find game hosting infrastructure relying on Google Cloud and Youtube being the exclusive streaming partner worldwide except for China.

For live broadcasts of popular eSports leagues and events these will be showcased with Youtube Gaming. This includes Overwatch, Call of Duty, Hearthstone and more. The inaugural Call of Duty league season kick offs on Friday, January 24th at 2pm PST with twelve teams competing in Minnesota. The Overwatch League’s 2020 season will follow on February 8th.

Players will benefit by experiencing premium network quality-of-service, including low latency and packet loss when playing high-fidelity games on any device. They will also have optimal personalized interactions, as Activision Blizzard can tap into Google Cloud's AI tools to offer curated recommendations for in-game offers and differentiated gaming experiences.

"We've worked closely with Activision Blizzard for the past few years across mobile titles to boost its analytics capabilities and overall player experience," said Sunil Rayan, Head of Gaming, Google Cloud. "We are excited to now expand our relationship and help power one of the largest and most renowned game developers in the world."

"We're excited to partner with Google to drive the next generation of gaming innovation for the industry. Google Cloud's best-in-class infrastructure gives us the confidence to deliver great entertainment to our fans around the world,"
said Jacques Erasmus, Chief Information Officer, Activision Blizzard.

"With more than 200 million gamers a day watching more than 50 billion hours of gaming content per year, YouTube provides gamers and their passionate fans with the most popular video gaming platform in the world," said Ryan Wyatt, Head of Gaming, YouTube. "Both the Overwatch League and Call of Duty League are the quintessential examples of world class esports content. As a former Call of Duty esports commentator myself, I couldn't be more excited for Activision Blizzard to choose YouTube as its exclusive home for the digital live streaming of both leagues. This partnership further demonstrates our dedication to having a world class live streaming product for gaming."
 

Woo-Fu

Banned
People making jokes about Stadia are missing an important bit of information: Stadia isn't mentioned anywhere in the article.

If we go by the article this appears to be solely about streaming league content. At least they chose Youtube instead of Facebook, be thankful.
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
Strong move if stadia gets call of duty before anyone else. Could really push game streaming.

I think this makes me sad, but im not sure. 🤷‍♂️

Thats not gonna happen. Activision is all in for the money. Even if Google paid up, imagine all the mtx and dlc money Activision will miss out on with that little player base
 

llien

Member
Why would AB sell stuff over Stadia instead their own shop?

Seems to be about using youtube.

I wonder, what Twitch thinks of all this.
 

rubenburgt

Member
With twitch could you occasionally unlock and buy game specific emotes for chat.

I wonder what would happen to those emotes.
 

BlackTron

Member
So now I get Google's ad serving and behavioral analytics in my Blizzard games?

For MULTIPLE years?

yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay
 

ThatGamingDude

I am a virgin
There’s been a brand new multi-year strategic relationship to power player experiences between Activision Blizzard and Google that has been announced. This will find game hosting infrastructure relying on Google Cloud and Youtube being the exclusive streaming partner worldwide except for China.
This just in: Google and YouTube are not in China
Blizzard-Activision: "Oh this service we can't provide in China won't be provided in China."
tenor.gif
 
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IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

Kagoshima_Luke

Gold Member
Interesting. The Overwatch League is streaming exclusive to Youtube this season, which now makes sense considering this partnership with Google. It's actually a step down in every way. You used to be able to earn tokens from watching, which you could exchange for team skins. Can't anymore. You used to have access to different views (as in you could watch through the eyes of a specific player). Not an option on Youtube.

Blizzard needs to be separating themselves from Activistion, not diving in deeper with another mega-corporation.
 

Sota4077

Member
Isn't PS the main platform for Acti games?
It is for COD. Or at least it was. I stopped paying attention to those games up until the most recent one. Then I played the main story and never touched it again because COD multiplayer is absolutely a cesspool.
 

wolffy71

Banned
"Players will benefit by experiencing premium network quality-of-service, including low latency and packet loss when playing high-fidelity games on any device."

How are people saying this isnt about streaming games themselves and not merely streaming video of games such as overwatch league?
 
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