Microsoft has been fighting an uphill battle regarding its next big acquisition. After the ZeniMax Media purchase, Microsoft wasn’t done picking up studios. Their next target, which we’ve been covering for a good while now, is Activision Blizzard. However, this current purchase has not been as smooth for Microsoft. There have been more than a few vocal opinions against the purchase. Today, we’re finding a new report suggesting that now the EU will be issuing a statement of objection over the purchase plans.
This report comes from Reuters, which had sources in the know for the European Commission. If you haven’t been following this story, Microsoft has been eyeing the purchase of Activision Blizzard for some time now. The Microsoft team would add more IPs and studios under their umbrellas which would set them back by about $69 billion. That’s a huge chunk of change, and it might just be worth it if that means having control over Call of Duty. That is the IP being heavily discussed online regarding this purchase and a franchise that Sony doesn’t want to lose out on.
It could be a reason why the EU will be filing a statement against the Activision Blizzard purchase. This means Microsoft has to make some pleas and adjustments to ensure this deal can proceed before April 11, 2023, deadline. Fortunately, it does seem like Microsoft is all for making adjustments, as prior, they released a contract deal with Valve’s Steam and Nintendo for Call of Duty video games. Essentially, Microsoft made a contract to force the company to release Call of Duty games on competitor platforms for at least ten years.
While both Valve and Nintendo agreed to the deal, it doesn’t seem like Sony is all too keen. That would at least allow Call of Duty installments to release on competitor platforms for likely the entire console generation for the PlayStation 5. For now, it’s a wait to see if Microsoft is able to proceed with the acquisition. It’s also a waiting game to see if the EU antitrust warning will actually go out, as again, this is just rumored for now. At least it looks like Microsoft would be all for making some deals to ensure that they can officially acquire Activision Blizzard, which might mean Call of Duty titles will continue to be developed for multiple platforms.
