Following a bitter, months-long feud over the company's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft and Sony have signed a deal 🧾 to keep the multi-billion dollar Call of Duty franchise on PlayStation consoles. "We are pleased to announce that Microsoft and 🧾 PlayStation have signed a binding agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard," Microsoft 🧾 Gaming CEO Phil Spencer tweeted Sunday morning. "We look forward to a future where players globally have more choice to 🧾 play their favorite games."
The announcement comes after Microsoft on Friday defeated a last-ditch effort by the US Federal Trade Commission 🧾 to scuttle the company'sR$68.7 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals declined to grant the regulator 🧾 an emergency stay of a ruling that allows the deal to proceed in the US. The United Kingdom's Markets and 🧾 Competition Authority (CMA) is the last remaining regulator of note opposed to the purchase, but the watchdog and Microsoft recently 🧾 agreed to put their legal battle over the deal on hold and negotiate a compromise.
We are pleased to announce that 🧾 Microsoft and @PlayStation have signed a binding agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation following the acquisition of Activision 🧾 Blizzard. We look forward to a future where players globally have more choice to play their favorite games. — Phil 🧾 Spencer (@XboxP3) July 16, 2024
"From Day One of this acquisition, we’ve been committed to addressing the concerns of regulators, platform 🧾 and game developers, and consumers," Microsoft President and Vice Chair Brad Smith tweeted in response to Spencer's post. "Even after 🧾 we cross the finish line for this deal’s approval, we will remain focused on ensuring that Call of Duty remains 🧾 available on more platforms and for more consumers than ever before."
Spencer did not disclose the terms of Microsoft's deal with 🧾 Sony, though Stephen Totilo of Axios later confirmed that it is 10 years in duration. Microsoft first offered Sony a 🧾 10-year deal to keep Call of Duty on current and future PlayStation consoles at the end of last year, though 🧾 the Japanese electronics giant turned down the olive branch at the time. In an effort to secure approval from regulators, 🧾 including the FTC and CMA, Microsoft went on to sign an agreement with Nintendo to bring the series to the 🧾 company's future consoles. It also came to terms with cloud gaming providers like NVIDIA.
Before today, Jim Ryan, the president and 🧾 CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, made clear he was strongly opposed to Microsoft's Activision bid. “I don’t want a new 🧾 Call of Duty deal. I just want to block your merger,” Ryan told Activision CEO Bobby Kotick. “I told him 🧾 [Kotick] that I thought the transaction was anti-competitive, I hoped that the regulators would do their job and block it,” 🧾 Ryan later said during his testimony at the FTC v. Microsoft hearing. But with the purchase all but set to 🧾 move forward, Sony likely had no choice but to come to terms with its rival.
Update 2:57PM ET: Added more information 🧾 about the length of the agreement.
