Taking action
Sony and Microsoft signed a binding agreement over the weekend to ensure this Call of Duty will be on PlayStation for at least 10 years after Microsoft’s proposed purchase of Activision is complete. The agreement, which Sony refused to sign for several months, ends a bitter dispute between the two giants over disputes over Microsoft’s purchase of Activision for $69 billion, which was first reported. in January 2022.
The new agreement also makes clear one of the most important points the FTC made in its anti-merger cases, which failed to obtain an injunction sought by the FTC last week. And it may not be a coincidence that the deal with Sony was announced just one day after the appeals court rejected it. The FTC’s request has been appealed on the forbidden decision.
The agreement, as announced at the end of the week and Xbox Chief Phil Spencer and Microsoft Vice President and President Brad Smith, doesn’t seem to include PlayStation’s promise of access to some of Activision Blizzard’s most popular titles (including Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Overwatch, Diablo, and more). But the future of Call of Duty it has already existed and the great interest of both Sony and the directors. Court documents were revealed that Call of Duty alone is worth at least $800 million a year to Sony and the fact that 20 million PlayStation owners spend a large portion of their games on the series (including the 1 million PlayStation owners who do not play other games on the console).
A bitter history
Microsoft originally gave Sony three years Call of Duty to do last summer, to give Sony publicly called it “incomplete” at the time. Microsoft it is signed a 10-year contract late last yearaddition an unofficial promise of “perpetual help” about Call of Duty on PlayStation.
Nintendo and Nvidia they may sign similar agreements to protect them Call of Duty for their platforms earlier this year. But Sony continued to resist, arguing over UK law that it cannot trust Microsoft’s promises on this score because of Microsoft’s exclusive Bethesda titles and “the many ways in which Microsoft can limit its responsibilities.”
Sony also publicly expressed concern that Microsoft it would only give the PlayStation a “degraded” version. Call of Duty in an attempt to attract the Xbox platform. But Microsoft has repeatedly promised that PlayStation Call of Duty will continue to match Microsoft platforms in terms of “release date, content, features, upgrades, quality, and playability.”
Sony’s public complaint also contradicts reports of the company’s secretive response to Microsoft’s attempted acquisition of Activision. In a private email for January 2022 was revealed in an FTC lawsuitSony Interactive Entertainment President and CEO Jim Ryan said, “I am confident that we will continue to see CoD on PlayStation for many years to come.”
And in March, the head of Activision Blizzard publicly accused Ryan saying “[doesn’t] want a new one Call of Duty sales. I just want to block your integration. ” Ryan later confirmed in court that he told Activision CEO Bobby Kotick that he “thinks the project is not competitive,” and that he “hopes that regulators will do their job and ban it. .”
With Sony’s approval, and the FTC’s case losing power, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority is the only barrier that matters left Microsoft and Activision finally completing their merger. Microsoft and CMA they are discussing now “how the product can be changed to address those concerns in a manner acceptable to the CMA.”