Microsoft offered Sony 10-year Call of Duty deal

Microsoft says it offered Sony a 10-year deal to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation as it tries to quell fears over its acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Microsoft has said it offered Sony a 10-year deal to keep the Call of Duty series on PlayStation, in an effort to assuage concerns about a proposed $100 billion acquisition of series publisher Activision Blizzard.

In a statement made to the New York Times, head of Xbox gaming at Microsoft, Phil Spencer, said the company reached out to Sony to offer the decade-long deal, ensuring Call of Duty would remain on PlayStation consoles until at least the end of the console generation, if not much longer. Sony declined to comment on the offer to the New York Times, and Spencer didn’t elaborate on how the Japanese gaming giant responded.

Sony’s PlayStation 5 has shown to be wildly popular, with stock for the console consistently sold out within minutes of it appearing. Picture: Sony

Phil Spencer also said he approached Sony early on in the process to let the company know it intended to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation consoles. “The first call [Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella] and I made after the deal was announced was to the CEO of Sony to say, ‘Hey, we’re going to keep Call of Duty on your platform’,” he said.

Microsoft’s attempted acquisition of Activision Blizzard has come under intense scrutiny from anti-competition regulators across the world. Regulators have largely focused on the availability of Call of Duty, and what it might mean for competition in the gaming space if Microsoft were to make the title exclusive to its own consoles.

Despite that, Microsoft says that the deal isn’t “all about Call of Duty”, instead insisting that the real value of the deal comes from Activision Blizzard’s mobile assets. Microsoft said Candy Crush developer King, which is owned by Activision Blizzard after a 2016 merger, offers a unique opportunity to expand into the mobile space, which it says is where most of the growth in the games industry is coming from.

Microsoft says that its flagship consoles, the Xbox Series S and X, are in ‘third place’ in terms of sales, behind the PS5 and Nintendo Switch. Picture: Microsoft

The $100 bllion deal from Microsoft is facing an in-depth investigation from the European Commission, as it enters its second phase of examining the deal. The Commission expressed concerns that Microsoft has a “potential economic incentive” to lock out competitors from Activision Blizzard’s titles, and also said that it could lead to pressure on PC buyers to buy Windows computers, where Xbox titles are also available.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.