‘Over 150 million players more’: Microsoft uses Call of Duty in its ads, enough to pressure regulators?

Game news ‘Over 150 million players more’: Microsoft uses Call of Duty in its ads, enough to pressure regulators?

Acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft: more than a year of communication, investigation and communication

It’s nice here 15 months since Microsoft and Activision Blizzard King announced they reached an agreement So the Redmond company was able to buy the publisher for about $70 billion. A takeover of unprecedented scale, which has therefore been closely scrutinized by regulators around the world. Some countries have already given their consent, but we are still waiting the decision of the most important markets for video game consoles and PC. The CMA (UK) is expected to give its verdict later this month, having brushed aside its concerns about maintaining healthy competition with Sony.

On his side, the European Union postponed its verdict until the end of May, while essentially occupying the same position as the British. In other words, regulators seem reassured about potential dominance remains very attentive to the topic of cloud gaming. For reassurance, Microsoft is multiplying agreements with various industry players, even if it means being broad. That leaves the United States and its Federal Trade Commission, which has decided to take Microsoft to court. Sony’s main arguments against the acquisition include We find the future management of the Call of Duty franchise.

The franchise has thrived for almost 20 years and is taking a huge toll on manufacturers’ income Sony fears Microsoft could be taking significant revenue from PlayStation by making the franchise exclusive. Microsoft Xbox assures that this is not their goal and that it would be to deprive the public of this franchise commercially counterproductive. The Redmond-based company publicly pointed this out when signing 10-year agreements with NVIDIA and Nintendo The door is open to Sony executives when they want to sign a contract. Something to reverse the pressure and get the ball into the court of Japanese society.

Microsoft advertises Call of Duty on the London Underground!

While Sony remains opposed to the acquisition, Sony says Microsoft is deciding to exit “weakened” versions of Call of Duty The company failed to recover on PlayStation consoles. It is difficult to distinguish the true from the false, or between fantasy and reality, as it is all part of a confrontation between communication services. We are therefore awaiting the various judgments, which does not prevent Microsoft continues its communications campaign, openly offering advertising on the London Underground

Microsoft is now running digital ads for its acquisition of Activision Blizzard in select London Underground stations. It comes a month after full-page advertisements appeared in two UK newspapers and ahead of the CMA’s decision on the deal later this month.

In this video we see Microsoft are proud to announce that Call of Duty will be offered to an additional 150 million players in the world thanks to the signed agreements or Game Pass. “This is just one of our commitments under the agreement between Activision Blizzard and Xbox. More games, for more players, on more platforms.”, we can read on the display. However, it should be Be careful with this number of 150 million. It is indeed the theoretical number of players who could play Call of Duty now if the acquisition is confirmed.

It is therefore not taken into account that some players simply have no interest in nor the fact that some players already have another support to play Activision FPS. Apparently this advert was not placed on the London Underground by accident as we are just days away from the CMA ruling and the affected stations are some of the busiest on the network. In any case, not sure if this message, which can be described as eager, goes down very well with Jim Ryan and Sony.

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