Microsoft continues to show its good faith before the authorities, to approve Activision Blizzard’s takeover bid. Indeed, the American giant confirms the possibility of including future Call of Duty games in the PlayStation Plus subscription service from the day of its launch.
This offer from Microsoft also includes a 10-year contract that guarantees the release of the Call of Duty series of games on PlayStation consoles. Although this proposal may seem advantageous, Sony has expressed its concern about potentially unsustainable licensing costs that could lead to higher prices for PlayStation users.
The takeover of Activision Blizzard: Call of Duty at the heart of the fighting
Let’s not forget that Sony is also concerned that Microsoft will use its influence to manipulate the pricing of Call of Duty on PlayStation based on license fees you choose to charge. In addition, the Japanese company expressed its concerns about Microsoft’s Game Pass potentially dominating multi-game subscription services in the future.
Microsoft has confirmed plans to bring future versions of Call of Duty to Game Pass on launch day and is ready to appoint a third-party evaluator to ensure they meet their commitments during the 10 year period. The final report of the Markets and Competition Authority on the agreement with Activision Blizzard is expected on April 26.
As a reminder, last month Microsoft also signed a 10-year legal agreement with Nintendo to bring FPS to Nintendo platforms and a 10-year partnership with Nvidia to bring their Xbox games to PC on the GeForce Now service.
It remains to be seen whether Microsoft will be able to respond to the concerns of regulators and convince Sony of the feasibility of its proposal.