To Ensure That Call Of Duty Stays On PlayStation Platform, Microsoft Expresses Sincerity To Provide Sony With A 10-year Agreement

In January this year, Microsoft Xbox announced that it had spent $68.7 billion to acquire the gaming giant Activision Blizzard.

Spencer, head of Microsoft's Xbox business, promised that even if the acquisition is approved, the "Call of Duty" series of games will still exist on Sony's PlayStation console for "several years" (beyond Sony's existing contract), and the next three "Call of Duty" games The game will still be launched on the PS platform. "We value our relationship with Sony," he added.

But despite this, Sony PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan still publicly stated that "Microsoft's proposal appears insufficient (sincere) on many levels", and repeatedly expressed to the EU review agencies the potential risks of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Ryan said Microsoft is "a tech giant with a long history of industry dominance" and "if this deal goes ahead, the options that gamers have today will likely disappear."

Sony told British regulators that "Call of Duty" is so popular that any restrictions on it would affect consumers' purchase choices for the console and could put the current global console market leader, the PlayStation 5, at a disadvantage. Any Xbox exclusives will affect player choice (although PS has always had exclusives).

When the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced its decision to investigate the takeover in more detail in September, it said they believed Call of Duty was so important that it lost access to it (or lost access to the terms of the competition). could seriously impact Sony's revenue and user base (choice).

In response to the CMA, Microsoft called the regulator's concerns "wrong" and claimed it "accepted Sony's complaint without conducting an appropriately rigorous review."

Later, Microsoft confirmed in a document submitted to the British regulator CMA: There is an agreement between Activision Blizzard and Sony that guarantees that the game will not be able to land on the XGP subscription service for several years.

So far, regulators in Saudi Arabia and Brazil have approved the deal, but antitrust regulators in the United States, Europe and elsewhere have yet to make a decision.

On Nov. 9, the European Commission announced an in-depth investigation into Microsoft's planned $69 billion acquisition of video game giant Activision Blizzard , amid concerns that Microsoft's acquisition could affect popular game franchises such as Call of Duty.

It looks like we've reached another critical moment in the Sony-Microsoft debate. Microsoft expressed its willingness to make concessions on the future development of the "Call of Duty" series.

Microsoft told The New York Times that it had offered Sony a 10-year deal on Nov. 11 that would keep the Call of Duty series on the PlayStation for ten years. Sony declined to comment.

Microsoft said Sony was misleading regulators, telling the New York Times that "the company exaggerated the importance of Call of Duty to its viability."

It's worth noting that Spencer also said last week that he's willing to make a commitment to Sony and regulators that Call of Duty will stay on the PlayStation for longer than what's currently in place.

"I think we're going to write a contract where it might be kind of stupid to put the word 'forever' in it, but to make a long-term commitment that Sony is willing to accept, a long-term commitment that the regulators are willing to accept, I have no problem with that.”

AndroBliz has reported that Phil Spencer also stated in an interview with The Verge that if the company does not gain a firm foothold in the mobile field, it will be difficult for Xbox to continue to operate as a global enterprise, and claimed that the acquisition of Activision Blizzard is mainly for Take down Candy Crush developer King, not Call of Duty.