Microsoft has signed an agreement with Sony, according to which the Call of Duty video game will remain available on PlayStation after the tech giant implements a $69 billion takeover deal for Activision Blizzard.
This agreement solves Sony’s concerns that Microsoft become the third largest publisher of video games in the world as a result of the deal, which will be a negative factor in terms of competition conditions in this market.
Phil Spencer, the head of Microsoft Xbox, on his Twitter page, confirmed the signing of the agreement and announced the expectation of a future in which players around the world will have more opportunities to play their favorite games.
Sony took one of the most radical positions on the merger of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard. The company spoke negatively about this intention, fearing damage to the availability of Call of Duty, one of the most popular franchises in the field of video games. The agreements with Sony for the tech giant actually mean the removal of a significant barrier to the implementation of the deal.
Regulators in several countries have expressed concern that this merger and acquisition could harm competition. For this reason, Microsoft has already signed multi-year licensing agreements with competing companies, including Nintendo and Nvidia. The main point of these agreements is that the technology giant should provide guarantees that they will not restrict access to games Activision Blizzard for users of other platforms and consoles.
Microsoft did not provide information about the term of the agreement with Sony. President of the corporation Brad Smith said on his Twitter page that from the very beginning of the transaction, the company was committed to solving problems related to the concerns of regulators, consumers, digital platforms, and game developers. He also announced his intention to provide access to Call of Duty to more platforms and for more consumers than ever before.
In June, during a five-day hearing in federal court, Microsoft executives, including CEO Satya Nadella, testified that after the deal was closed, access to digital products, including Call of Duty, and services would not be restricted.
Last week, US District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley said that the US government failed to provide convincing evidence that after the takeover of Activision Blizzard, the technology giant will get the rights on Call of Duty to the detriment of PlayStation and that ownership of the video game developer’s content will negatively affect competition in the field of subscriptions to these digital products and cloud services.
Last week, Microsoft won two consecutive victories in the courts. The Federal District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals refused to block the completion of the merger. The Federal Trade Commission said the ban was necessary to prevent damage to video game consumers as a result of the deal, which, according to the regulator, will allow the tech giant to ban Call of Duty and other popular products of a similar category on competing consoles and cloud services.
