It’s now official, Microsoft has confirmed its offer of a 10-year contract to continue streaming Call of Duty on PlayStation platforms after its planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Since the announcement of the takeover of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft last January, Sony has done everything to put a spoke in the wheels of its competitor, for fear of losing certain flagship licenses such as Call of Duty. Fortunately, we now know that PlayStation players don’t have to worry about losing access to their favorite shooter.
Indeed, Brad Smith, vice president and president of Microsoft, confirmed that Microsoft not only offered Sony a 10-year deal to keep Call of Duty on PlayStationbut is willing to make it legally enforceable with various regulators.
Microsoft offers 10-year Call of Duty on PlayStation deal to Sony
” Sony is as excited about this deal as Blockbuster was about the rise of Netflix writes Smith, dismissing Sony’s fears that Microsoft will suddenly remove Call of Duty support from its competitor’s platform. He also declared that such a choice would simply be economically irrational ” and ” disastrous for the Call of Duty franchise and Xbox itself, alienating millions of gamers “.
This is therefore very good news for players, but above all a good decision for Microsoft itself. Regulators in the European Union and the United Kingdom have launched antitrust investigations into Microsoft’s proposed takeover to determine whether the deal is likely to harm competition. The EU was concerned, for example, that Microsoft would block access to games such as Call of Duty to its rivals.
Thanks to its recent statements, the FTC, the American trade body, is also on the verge of giving its approval in favor of the transaction. The finalization of the takeover is therefore on the right track, even if it will be necessary to wait until all the indicators are green to be sure. Smith obviously reminded Sony that suing Microsoft to try to prevent the acquisition ” would be a huge mistake ” who would stifle competition and negatively impact consumers and game developers.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
