The acquisition struggle between Microsoft and Sony continues. If you’ve had your head completely in the clouds until now, the struggle is over a proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, and therefore Xbox, for $69 billion. This is one of the most expensive acquisition deals in the video game industry yet and has garnered an equally large amount of attention. Today, the plot thickens as Microsoft allegedly offered Sony a 10-year contract on the merger’s most sought-after asset: Call of Duty.
Call of Duty is the world’s second-best-selling game series, selling $3 billion worth of products in 2020 alone. It’s also owned by Activision Blizzard, making the acquisition notable to say the least. While the FTC in the United States has deliberated on the proposed deal, Sony has been the most avid opponent. The company feels that the deal would give Xbox an unfair advantage. If Xbox were to be the exclusive host of Call of Duty, it would be a blow to the PlayStation arm of Sony.
Microsoft has made several announcements denying any intent to make the franchise an Xbox exclusive. The company has even extended 10-year deals to both Valve and Nintendo, promising that Call of Duty would be available to them for the next decade at least. Both Valve, the company behind the popular PC gaming store and community Steam, and Nintendo have reportedly signed the deal in the event that the acquisition is approved.
Now, an anonymous source close to the confidential talks has claimed that the 10-year deal has also been offered to Sony. This deal would allow Call of Duty to be sold for both PlayStation consoles and the PlayStations Plus service, which lets subscribers play a collection of games for a monthly fee. At this time, Sony has not signed this deal.
The offer is in response to the recent developments in the case. Despite many players and even companies signing off on the merger, the FTC is not convinced. The fear, as we mentioned, is that Microsoft will make Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox. While the 10-year deal is a generous show of good faith on Microsoft’s part, it isn’t exactly airtight.
The example of ZeniMax Media looms over the proposed acquisition’s neck. When Microsoft acquired the company and therefore its publishing branch, Besthesda Softworks, many of those games became Microsoft exclusives. The upcoming Starfield and Redfall are just two examples of AAA games that won’t be available for PlayStation. The FTC is using this as its main reason for suing Microsoft.
As the struggle continues, at least we’re all getting a solid education on anti-trust laws in the United States? Hopefully, in the end, the gamers will come out on top.
