Google on Friday announced a multi-year strategic relationship with Gaming major Activision Blizzard.

According to an official release by the companies, the partnership will lead to a tie-up between the two to “power new player experiences.”

Google Cloud will now be the preferred platform for Activision Blizzard's game hosting infrastructure.

Activision’s bid to lead mobile gaming

Activision joined with the tech giant to make use of the latter’s advanced artificial intelligence and data analytics capabilities along with its commitment to open source. Google’s technology can help boost Activision’s gaming infrastructure allowing the company to further optimize player experiences for its mobile titles.

This would strengthen Activision’s hold in the fast-growing mobile gaming market. A recent report by App Annie predicted the total global consumer spend on mobile gaming is all set to cross the $100 billion mark by 2020.

Official partnership with YouTube for streaming

Apart from Google cloud being the official service provider for the company’s gaming infrastructure, Google-owned YouTube will be the company’s exclusive streaming partner worldwide except China, for live broadcasts of its popular e-sports leagues and events such as the Overwatch League, Call of Duty League and Hearthstone Esports.

Two of Activision’s biggest e-sports leagues, the Overwatch League and the CoD league were previously streamed live by the streaming platform Twitch. Twitch had paid Activision Blizzard approximately $90 million in a two-year deal to become its official streaming partner for the Overwatch league, Engadget reported.

The inaugural season of the Call of Duty league kicked off on Friday, while Overwatch league is all set to begin on February 8.

“Esports live on @YouTubeGaming. Welcome to the family, Overwatch League, Call of Duty League, and Hearthstone Esports. Let’s get this thing going with the inaugural season of the Call of Duty league kicking off today!” Youtube’s Global Head of Gaming & Virtual Reality tweeted on Friday.

Activision Blizzard is the publisher behind some of the biggest games including Overwatch, Call of Duty and Candy Crush.

The gaming giant earned net income of over $204 million and had generated over $1.2 billion in sales during Q3 ended September 2019, according to the official filings by the company.

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