The acquisition of Activision-Blizzard by Microsoft for the astronomical sum of 68.7 billion has not finished making ink flow. While Sony Interactive Entertainment is fighting vigorously to prevent the transaction from happening, Brad Smith, the current President of Microsoft, has provided details on the offer made to his competitor to ensure that the Call of Duty franchise continues to released on PlayStation consoles for at least 10 years. A commitment which had already been announced in the New York Times last month and which is again confirmed by Brad Smith, who is aware of the financial windfall represented by the sales of Call of Duty on PlayStation.
Sony turns out to be the loudest detractor. The supposed anti-competitive risk raised by Sony is that Microsoft would stop the availability of Call of Duty games on PlayStation, but it would be economically irrational to do so. The majority of sales generated by Call of Duty for the benefit of Activision Blizzard come from the PlayStation versions. Given the popularity of cross-play, it would also be disastrous for the Call of Duty franchise and Xbox itself to go without, alienating millions of gamers.
That’s why we’ve offered Sony a 10-year deal to make every new version of Call of Duty available on PlayStation the same day it’s released on Xbox. We are willing to provide the same pledge to other platforms and make it legally enforceable by regulators in the US, UK and EU.
In a reply to a tweet, Phil Spencer (big boss of the Xbox brand) clarified that the 10-year Call of Duty deal also applies to Nintendo consoles. That said, there hasn’t been a Call of Duty episode released on a Nintendo machine since 2014 and the Ghost episode on Wii U. was in no way motivated by the acquisition of the Call of Duty brand, but a desire for Microsoft to establish itself in mobile games, through the King companies (Candy Crush) that Activision-Blizzard already owns. A clever and delicate way to shine the spotlight on another subject, and which Brad Smith did not hesitate to put forward, stating that the agreement would allow Microsoft to compete with Apple and Google, which currently dominate mobile gaming.
I’m also pleased to confirm that Microsoft has committed to continue to offer Call of Duty on @Steam simultaneously to Xbox after we have closed the merger with Activision Blizzard King. @ATVI_AB @ValveSoftware
—Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) December 7, 2022
It is recalled that the European Commission and the UK Competition and Markets Authority have recently launched in-depth investigations into Microsoft’s proposed acquisitions, while it has been claimed that the FTC may bring an antitrust lawsuit for attempt to block the deal with Activision. Brad Smith said that suing Microsoft to try to stop the acquisition “would be a huge mistake” which would stifle competition and negatively impact consumers and game developers.
According to a report by Bloomberg last week, Microsoft is ready to fight in court if the FTC tries to block the Activision-Blizzard takeover, while the New York Post says the FTC Chairman would already be willing to approve the acquisition to avoid a disorderly vote split.