Call of Duty on PlayStation for 10 Years - Here's Microsoft's Offer to Sony
To assuage the concerns of market regulators, Microsoft is ready to guarantee that Call of Duty games will be released on PlayStation consoles for the next decade. We learned the details of the deal.
Microsoft is encountering quite a bit of trouble in its takeover of Activision Blizzard. European Commission, among others, has doubts and is about to launch a second, more detailed phase of the investigation to check the impact of the deal on the gaming market. Thanks to a commentary by Brad Smith (Microsoft's CEO) published in the Wall Street Journal, we know how the Redmond giant wants to assuage the concerns of government bodies from key markets.
- Microsoft offered Sony a 10-year guarantee that all new installments of Call of Duty will be released on PlayStation consoles along with debuts on other hardware platforms.
- Microsoft is offering the same deal to other platform manufacturers and says it is ready to have such commitments enforced by market regulators in the U.S., the U.K. and within the European Union ..
- This is an important declaration, since the controversy over this acquisition mainly concerns the Call of Duty series. Sony and the European Commission are concerned that Microsoft could deprive competitors of access to the brand. The series is considered so important that it could negatively affect the entire market.
- There's also a lot of buzz about an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft allegedly planned by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to sink the acquisition. Some of its members are said to be leaning toward accepting the deal, especially if it were accompanied by the corporation's guarantees of fair competition. According to New York Post, the head of FTC, who supports the lawsuit, doesn't currently have enough votes on the Commission to block the takeover, so it's possible that the deal will eventually be finalized.
This is not the first such ploy by Microsoft. In 2016, the company guaranteed the European Commission that its key technologies would be shared with competitors after it acquired LinkedIn.
Microsoft argues that concerns about the Activision Blizzard takeover are unfounded. According to the company, this acquisition will benefit consumers, as it will make it easier to compete with other industry giants and thus increase competition in this market.
Recall that Microsoft announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard earlier this year. Approval for the buyout of the publisher was given by the Brazilian government agency CADE (Administrative Council for Economic Defense), as well as analogous offices in Saudi Arabia and Serbia. Proceedings are still pending in the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea.
