According to the CEO of Xbox, sony is reluctant to come to the table to reach an agreement on Microsoft planned acquisition of ActivisionBlizzard.
Microsoft announced that it had offered Sony a 10 yearslegally binding contract to perform each new tranche of the Call of Duty series available on PlayStation the same day it becomes available on Xbox. Indeed, the future of the Call of Duty series as a cross-platform product is one of the main areas under consideration by international regulators. In addition, he said on Wednesday that he had sent nintendo and Steam comparable offers. However, Phil Spencer said in an interview with Bloomberg that Sony is not interested in negotiating with Microsoft for Call of Duty.
There was one player from the gaming industry who really raised all the objections, and that’s Sony, and they’ve been pretty public about things that don’t meet their expectations.
From our perspective, it’s clear that they’re spending more time with the regulators than with us trying to get this deal done. Our intention is to become more relevant on more screens. We have a pretty good idea of how to build a win-win relationship with Nintendo and frankly Sony.
-Phil Spencer
Gabe NewellCEO and co-founder of Valve also gave Microsoft a much-needed boost as maker Xbox tries to persuade anti-trust authorities to go along with its plan to buy Activision Blizzard. In response to Microsoft’s Steam offer, Valve acknowledged receiving a draft contract for a “long term“Call of Duty arrangement but said it was superfluous for several reasons.
We’re glad Microsoft wants to continue using Steam to reach customers with Call of Duty when their acquisition of Activision closes.
Microsoft offered and even sent us a draft agreement for a long-term commitment in Call of Duty, but it wasn’t necessary for us because a) we don’t believe any partner has an agreement that forces us to ship games to Steam in the far future b) Phil and the games team at Microsoft have always followed through on what they told us they would do, so we have faith in their intentions and c) we think Microsoft has all the motivation they need to be on the platforms and devices where Call of Duty customers want to be.
-Gabe Newell via Kotaku
Extensive investigations into Microsoft’s buying ambitions have recently been launched by the European Commission and the UK CMAand it was said that the United States FTC may file an antitrust case to try to block the Activision acquisition. On WednesdayMicrosoft officials to meet with FTC chairman Lina Khan and other commissioners to explain why the transaction should not be halted due to antitrust concerns.
