The acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft has been hotly contested by Sony, with the debate mainly centred around the hugely popular Call of Duty franchise. An article from The New York Times has now revealed that Microsoft has offered Sony and their PlayStation consoles another decade of Call of Duty games, once the acquisition deal is finalized.
The offer was made on Nov. 11, with Sony declining to comment on the offer. Intense legal scrutiny is going on across the world into the Activision Blizzard acquisition, despite Microsoft repeatedly stating its intention to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation consoles and even off the Xbox Game Pass service. To PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan, the offers made previously have been “inadequate on many levels“.
It would make a lot of financial sense to keep the Call of Duty series on PlayStation. The record-breaking success of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II came in part thanks to huge PlayStation sales, with Modern Warfare II‘s physical launch in the UK selling over 70% of copies on PlayStation consoles. Should Microsoft take Call of Duty from PlayStation, they would also be leaving a large chunk of its billion dollar potential on the table.
The acquisition is slowly getting approval globally, including in Brazil and Saudi Arabia, but other countries like the UK are still reviewing what the deal means for competition. Despite Call of Duty console exclusivity, there are also concerns about what the deal could mean for market competition in the cloud gaming space. Whatever happens next, we’ll be sure to cover the latest developments as they happen.
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