For the record, the European Commission, which will deliver its verdict no later than March 23, 2023, is not the only institution to have chosen to look into the matter since the Competition Markets Authority (CMA) preceded it a few weeks ago. And of the 16 governments that are studying the case, only Brazil and Saudi Arabia have given their agreement, Microsoft saying that Serbia is about to do the same.
Recently, as part of the podcast Decoder of The Verge, Phil Spencer had indicated that it was nonsense to establish an unlimited contract. “The idea that we should write ‘forever’ in black and white on a contract [pour garantir la sortie des prochains Call of Duty sur PlayStation, ndlr] is a bit stupidhad entrusted the boss of the Xbox branch. On the other hand, I have no problem putting in place a long-term commitment that is acceptable to both Sony Interactive Entertainment and the competition authorities. We simply believe that Call of Duty will continue to be available on PlayStation for as long as players want. It’s not a competitive threat to Sony, it’s just a pragmatic view of things.“
He added that there was no trickery (a Cloud version that would require owners of a PlayStation console to go through Microsoft services, for example) and that Call of Duty games would be offered natively on the machines from the Japanese giant. In short, the war between the two manufacturers on this subject is far from over.