Sony admits defeat and signs Microsoft deal to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation
Sony has apparently recognized the inevitability of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard and has signed an agreement with Microsoft to keep Call of Duty available on PlayStation for the next 10 years.
The news was announced on Sunday by Phil Spencer, head of gaming at Microsoft. “We are pleased to announce that Microsoft and PlayStation have signed a binding agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation following its acquisition of Activision Blizzard,” Spencer tweeted. “We look forward to a future where players worldwide have more choice to play their favorite games.”
A Microsoft spokesperson then confirmed to The Verge that the deal would run for 10 years and only cover Call of Duty – not other Activision Blizzard games. That puts it on par with agreements Microsoft had previously made with Nintendo, Nvidia, and others.
Microsoft chairman Brad Smith also commented, saying: “From day one of this acquisition, we have been committed to addressing the concerns of regulators, platform and game developers, and consumers. Even after we cross the finish line for approval of this deal, we will remain focused on ensuring that Call of Duty remains available on more platforms and to more consumers than ever before.”
The signing of the deal marks the end of a long stalemate, in which Microsoft made repeated, public offers to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation, while Sony rejected them and instead tried to use its clout with regulatory authorities to support its acquisition of Activision. by sinking Microsoft from $68.7 billion. Blizzard completely. ‘I don’t want a new one Duty agreement. I just want to block your merger,” PlayStation boss Jim Ryan reportedly told Activision executives on the day of a meeting with European Union regulators in February.
PlayStation’s strategy was to use Call of Duty to convince regulators that the merger would kill competition in the console market because Microsoft would withhold PlayStation’s games or release inferior versions there. But this strategy was not too successful. EU regulators were pleased with the assurances Microsoft offered, while the UK Competition and Markets Authority eventually conceded that it was in Microsoft’s interest to keep Call of Duty available to the massive PlayStation audience, and in its opposition to the deal moved on to cloud gaming concerns.
Only the US Federal Trade Commission eventually agreed with Sony’s argument, but when the case was tested in court, it lost. Evidence presented in the case included an emailed admission from Ryan that he was not worried about PlayStation losing access to Call of Duty “for many years to come”.
The signing of the agreement with Microsoft means that Sony has effectively ended its opposition to the acquisition and now expects it to close – perhaps as early as Tuesday, July 18, the deadline by which the deal should be closed. In theory, two regulators remain against the takeover. But the FTC failed to convince an appeals court to extend an emergency hold on the deal, while the CMA has entered negotiations with Microsoft to find a way forward in the UK, with an extended deadline of August 29. It’s possible that Microsoft and Activision are now extending their own deal deadline to give this process time to complete.