Sony has seemingly recognized the inevitability of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard going through, and has signed an agreement with 9️⃣ Microsoft to keep Call of Duty available on PlayStation for the next 10 years.
The news was announced on Sunday by 9️⃣ Microsoft’s gaming head Phil Spencer. “We are pleased to announce that Microsoft and PlayStation have signed a binding agreement to 9️⃣ keep Call of Duty on PlayStation following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard,” Spencer tweeted. “We look forward to a future 9️⃣ where players globally have more choice to play their favorite games.”
A Microsoft spokesperson subsequently confirmed to The Verge that the 9️⃣ deal would last for a term of 10 years, and covers Call of Duty only — not any other Activision 9️⃣ Blizzard games. That puts it on a par with agreements Microsoft had previously signed with Nintendo, Nvidia, and others.
Microsoft president 9️⃣ Brad Smith also commented, saying, “From Day One of this acquisition, we’ve been committed to addressing the concerns of regulators, 9️⃣ platform and game developers, and consumers. Even after we cross the finish line for this deal’s approval, we will remain 9️⃣ focused on ensuring that Call of Duty remains available on more platforms and for more consumers than ever before.”
The signing 9️⃣ of the deal marks the end of a long stalemate, during which Microsoft made repeated public offers to keep Call 9️⃣ of Duty on PlayStation, while Sony dismissed these and instead attempted to use its leverage with regulators to sink Microsoft’sR$68.7 9️⃣ billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard completely. “I don’t want a new Call of Duty deal. I just want to block 9️⃣ your merger,” PlayStation boss Jim Ryan reportedly told Activision executives on the day of a meeting with European Union regulators 9️⃣ in February.
PlayStation’s strategy was to use Call of Duty to convince regulators the merger would kill competition in the console 9️⃣ market, because Microsoft would withhold the games from PlayStation or release inferior versions there. But this strategy was none too 9️⃣ successful. EU regulators were satisfied with the assurances offered by Microsoft, while the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority eventually conceded 9️⃣ it was in Microsoft’s interest to keep Call of Duty available to PlayStation’s huge audience, and switched tack in its 9️⃣ opposition of the deal to concerns around cloud gaming.
Only the U.S. Federal Trade Commission ultimately ran with Sony’s argument, but 9️⃣ when its case was tested in court, it lost. Evidence presented in the case included an emailed admission from Ryan 9️⃣ that he had no concerns about PlayStation losing access to Call of Duty “for many years to come.”
The signing of 9️⃣ the agreement with Microsoft means Sony has effectively ended its opposition to the acquisition, and now expects it to be 9️⃣ completed — perhaps as soon as Tuesday, July 18, the deadline by which the deal is supposed to be closed. 9️⃣ In theory, two regulators remain opposed to the acquisition. But the FTC has failed to persuade an appeals court to 9️⃣ extend an emergency block on the deal, while the CMA has entered into negotiations with Microsoft to find a path 9️⃣ forward in the U.K., with an extended deadline of Aug. 29. It’s possible Microsoft and Activision will now extend their 9️⃣ own deal deadline to give this process time to complete.
