Microsoft has been making some big promises lately as it works to encourage regulators to permit its $69 billion acquistion of Activision Blizzard. Among those promises was a deal offered to Sony pledging that Call of Duty would remain available on PlayStation consoles for ten years – a deal that reportedly also includes PlayStation Plus rights.
As reported by Bloomberg, the rights to sell the title via Sony’s PlayStation game subscription service were promised alongside Microsoft’s previously-stated offer to Sony for ten years of Call of Duty on Sony hardware if the Activision Blizzard cquisition went through. Sony has yet to accept the offer, and has continued to raise concerns with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the Federal Trade Commission about the acquistion.
The offer for inclusion on PlayStation Plus is especially notable due to Microsoft’s growing promotion of its own subscription service, Xbox Game Pass. Microsoft has previously stated its intentions to put Call of Duty on Game Pass if the deal closes, and Sony has claimed that Game Pass “significantly” leads PlayStation Plus in subscription numbers.
Meanwhile, Nintendo recently accepted the ten-year deal offered by Microsoft to put Call of Duty on Nintendo consoles, and Valve head Gabe Newell indicated he had no need for such a contract, but was happy to continue working with Microsoft “after” (Newell’s words) the deal closed.
Despite Newell’s confidence, the deal is far from done. Most recently, the FTC announced it would sue to block Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, saying the deal would “harm competition in high-performance gaming consoles and subscriptions services by denying or degrading rivals’ access to its popular content.”
Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.
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