The famous shooter Call of Duty, published by Activision Blizzard, will be maintained on Sony’s PlayStation consoles for at least ten years.
“We are pleased to announce that Microsoft and PlayStation have signed a binding agreement to retain Call of Duty on PlayStation following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard,” Phil spencer, head of the video games division, tweeted on Sunday evening. from Microsoft.
The deal is the latest installment in a soap opera that has rocked the video game industry since January 18, 2022, when Microsoft announced the acquisition of Activision Blizzard for a record $69 billion ($61 billion). euros).
Observers have in particular feared that Microsoft arrogates the exclusivity of the licenses of the first video game publisher in the United States, in particular that of the Call of Duty series whose annual episodes generally appear in the tables of the best sales of video games. The franchise thus brought in more than 30 billion dollars to its publisher, according to figures from Activision.
Activision Blizzard also owns other attractive licenses such as Candy Crush, World of Warcraft or Diablo. This acquisition would make Microsoft the world’s third-largest video game player in terms of revenue behind China’s Tencent and Japan’s Sony, according to figures from specialist firm Newzoo.
Blocking in USA and UK
The operation was approved by the European regulator last May. However, the project remains in the crosshairs of the competition authorities in the United States and the United Kingdom. The latter fear that this operation will allow Microsoft to lock access to Activision Blizzard games.
On July 11, a federal judge in San Francisco, however, dismissed the US competition authority, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which asked her to immediately suspend the takeover. The agency’s appeal was later dismissed on July 14. The first hearings in the FTC lawsuit will begin on August 2.
However, the American giant must also find common ground with the competition authority in the United Kingdom, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The latter blocked the merger in April and cited the risks of too much concentration of activities in the cloud gaming sector (streaming video games).
The CMA initially said it was “concerned that the deal could change the future of the fast-growing cloud gaming market, leading to reduced innovation and less choice for UK gamers over the coming years”, according to a communicated. Rare fact in such a procedure: the British authority agreed to reconsider new proposals from Microsoft.
In December, Phil Spencer said that Microsoft had “committed to providing Call of Duty to Nintendo for ten years” if Activision were integrated with the American giant.
