Activision Blizzard & Google Enter Multi-Year Strategic Relationship

January 24, 2020 at 5:21pm
By Jason Stettner

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."

Read our review of the latest CoD below, or check out the general hub for additional coverage. Read our Modern Warfare Review
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