Microsoft’s Xbox chief Phil Spencer announced on Twitter on Wednesday that the American company has made a 10-year commitment to Nintendo to bring the Call of Duty video game to its consoles. “Microsoft is committed to making more games available to more people, no matter what game they want to play,” he tweeted.
“It’s good for competition and good for consumers,” Microsoft chairman Brad Smith said shortly after, inviting PlayStation console maker Sony to “sit down and talk” to reach a consensus.
With our acquisition, Call of Duty will be available to more players and more platforms than ever before. It’s good for competition and good for consumers. Thanks @Nintendo. Any day @Sony wants to sit down and talk, we’d be happy to sign a 10-year deal for PlayStation as well. https://t.co/m1IQxdeo6n
— Brad Smith (@BradSmi) December 7, 2022
On one condition
But nothing has been done yet. Microsoft will indeed be able to port the Call of Duty title to all the consoles it wants if its plan to buy Activision, the publisher of the successful game, is not thwarted by US regulators or the European Commission, who are concerned about the risk of undermining competition in the video game distribution market.
In early 2022, the Redmond-based firm announced it wanted to acquire the gaming company for $69 billion, which would allow Microsoft, which already owns Xbox, to shore up its foothold in the industry, trailing China’s Tencent and Japan’s Sony.
But a month ago, Brussels launched a thorough investigation because “Microsoft may have the ability, as well as the economic temptation, to implement strategies that exclude video game distributors for console competitors, such as preventing them from distributing Activision Blizzard Console Video Games on consoles or worsening conditions for accessing or using such video games.” ,” the statement said. The commission must make a decision by March 23.
Thus, the announcement of an agreement with Nintendo may allay these concerns. “I believe this is an attempt by Microsoft to pressure Sony to sign an agreement with Activision and make it easier for Microsoft to reach an agreement with Activision,” Serkan Toto, founder of consulting firm Kantan Games, told Reuters.
Selected for you