When the $69 billion Activision acquisition is completed, Microsoft President Brad Smith and Xbox Lead Phil Spencer will have acknowledged that the company is introducing Call of Duty to other platforms. Spencer specifically disclosed Microsoft’s 10-year contract with Nintendo for Call of Duty and the continuation of the series on Steam. Sony, on the other hand, is staying mute about the same offer until Smith draws their notice to it.
After Microsoft and Activision Blizzard King merged, Microsoft made a 10-year promise to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo. “However they choose to play, Microsoft is committed to helping deliver more games to more people,” Spencer writes in his tweets. “I’m also happy to confirm that Microsoft has committed to keeping Call of Duty available on @Steam concurrently to Xbox when we have concluded the merger with Activision Blizzard King,” the company said.
Smith’s tweet, which emphasised how the Redmond firm is committed to encouraging healthy market competition in the gaming industry, was sent after the introduction of the Microsoft Gaming CEO. Smith thanked Nintendo before urging Sony to accept the identical offer Microsoft had made.
According to Smith’s tweet, “Our acquisition will bring Call of Duty to more gamers and more platforms than ever before.” “That’s excellent for customers and for competition. Many thanks, Nintendo. We’ll be happy to negotiate a 10-year agreement for PlayStation as well, whenever @Sony wants to sit down and speak.
Recall that Jim Ryan, the president of PlayStation, criticised Microsoft’s initial three-year proposal as “inadequate on many aspects and failed to take account of the impact on our players” in September. Microsoft changed the offer on November 11 by making it a longer 10-year agreement. However, despite a recent report that the two companies had meetings to discuss the matter, it appears Microsoft hasn’t yet received any official affirmative responses from the competitor despite introducing the solution to end one of the obvious causes for Sony’s ongoing diatribe against the merger. Given this, the question of whether Sony still considers the latest offer to be “inadequate” remains. Spencer previously told The Verge that it was “a little bit crazy” for the contract to use the word “forever” to figuratively promise Sony an unending deal for Call of Duty. To make a longer-term commitment, though, that Sony and regulators would be happy with, the Xbox Lead added, “I have no problem at all with that.”
The news of the Nintendo and Steam partnership was released the same week that a Bloomberg story made public the Wednesday meeting between Microsoft and the FTC. According to the report, Microsoft leaders including Smith and FTC Chair Lina Khan were there, along with the commission members of the organisation. The outcome of the meeting will determine whether the FTC will accept the transaction or pursue its previously mentioned plans to file a lawsuit to prevent it.
