Two days after the FTC (the US Federal Trade Commission) to unsuccessfully expend all options, avenues and resources to retain the block on Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, including last-minute filings, Sony completely rethinks its position: before the free way to close the purchase, PlayStation has signed the agreement so that the Call of Duty saga continues to reach your video game consoles.
It has been Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox, who through his social networks has made it official the binding agreement between Microsoft and PlayStation. A movement that they had been trying to close by offering all the concessions for more than a year and that, in the absence of knowing the details, Sony decided to sign two days before the date established for the purchase of Activision.
“We are pleased to announce that Microsoft and PlayStation have entered into a binding agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. We look forward to a future where gamers around the world have more options to play their favorite games.”
To be fair, with or without agreement, all parties involved were interested in what Call of Duty it would continue to come to PlayStation systems. As far as Xbox and Microsoft are concerned, there is not much mystery: their plan is to bring the saga to more platforms, not less. And well, at PlayStation they were not only sure that new installments would continue to arrive no matter what, but they feared that the acquisition of Activision would promote an exodus of their players to other consoles.
Why right now? Well, speaking of Bobby Kotick During the process that confronted Microsoft with the FTC, Activision offered PlayStation to extend the alliance with Call of Duty beyond 2024, but -according to the Activision executive- the response they received was that in Sony were confident that the United States Commission would block the purchase and do your job.
“Microsoft says Activision’s Bobby Kotick offered to extend Call of Duty’s joint marketing deal with Sony beyond 2024 to appease Sony’s requests for CoD, but says Jim Ryan turned down the offer, saying he’d rather regulators [de la FTC] They’ll just block the Microsoft deal.”
And that Playstation is neither the first nor the second platform in which more games are played Call of Dutyaccording to the figures offered by Kotick himself: mobiles and PCs hold at least three quarters of active players.
In this regard, it cannot be denied that the FTC spent all possible opportunities before the courts, appealing up to two times after ruling on the judicial result. without enough arguments to reach different conclusions.
The commitment to continue bringing Call of Duty to PlayStation consoles is not something new, since Phil Spencer committed to it right after the announcement of the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, in January 2022. Months later, and repeatedly, Microsoft has publicly reached out to PlayStation by offering them an open and negotiable ten-year agreement, despite the fact that PlayStation considered it insufficient.
What has changed after the failure of the FTC
What has changed since last year and, more specifically, since Friday, July 14, 2023 is very simple: Microsoft and Activision no longer have any type of blockade by the United States commission to formalize the purchase, as well as in Europe, Japan, China, Brazil and almost all regulatory bodies with the exception of the United Kingdom.
And despite this refusal, the original deadline for the purchase was set on July 18 and now the British are willing to negotiate the conditions. Another thing is that the process is fast: the bureaucracy of the CMA, the UK regulator, does not rule out starting a new investigation
In fact, and this is important to keep in mind when comparing the positions of the United Kingdom and the United States, in the judicial process that the FTC lost against Microsoft the purchase was not at stake, but maintaining the blockade, or rather the injunction, which prevented Microsoft from closing the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. And it’s time to insist: the FTC has spent all the attempts that have been in his hand to maintain the blockade.
For his part, the president of Microsoft Brad Smith sees this move as an opportunity to resolve possible discrepancies between regulators, developers and consumers (of video games) and anticipates that his plans are bring the Call of Duty saga to even more video game platforms
“Since day one of this acquisition, we have been committed to addressing the concerns of regulators, game and platform developers, and consumers. Even after we cross the finish line for approval of this deal, we will remain focused on ensuring May Call of Duty remain available on more platforms and to more consumers than ever before.”
What will happen now? To close the purchase all Call of Duty players will win. PlayStation players will continue to receive new installments beyond the next title (yet to be announced). Those who play on Nintendo Switch or its successor will be able to join the saga and other Activision Blizzard games, and it will no longer be necessary to have a very expensive PC with the return of the successful shooter to the new cloud gaming platforms.
Of course, in the absence of Microsoft closing the agreement (and there should not be much left when Activision Blizzard started its withdrawal from the Nasdaq so as not to be listed on the stock market on Monday the 17th) the big winners will be a Microsoft that expands its catalog to hundreds of millions of new platforms and, in the process, some Game Pass subscribers who -despite the agreement not to bring Call of Duty to the service established by PlayStation- will begin to receive the games, progressively. And, from 2024, it is quite likely that they will play them at launch.
And hopefully when the deal closes we’ll see Activision and Blizzard games on a lot more platforms and who knows? An irresistible claim for Game Pass players come back or discover World of Warcraft.
In ExtraLife | Microsoft vs FTC: all the secrets and curiosities of the industry in the trial over the purchase of Activision Blizzard
