Brad Smith, president of Microsoft (MSFT-US), said that the company offered Sony (6758-JP) a 10-year cooperation agreement, allowing Sony’s PlayStation game console to launch the latest models at the same time as the company’s Xbox. version of Call of Duty.
Microsoft hopes that doing so will assuage antitrust concerns from regulators and its rivals over its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard (ATVI-US), maker of the best-selling shooter game Call of Duty.
Politico reported last month that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) may file an antitrust lawsuit to block Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Smith responded by publishing an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal on Monday (5th), emphasizing that the acquisition is “good for gamers” and opposing any possible FTC lawsuits.
“That would be a huge mistake. It would hurt competition, consumers and thousands of game developers,” he said of a potential FTC lawsuit.
Regulators in the European Union and the United Kingdom have launched antitrust investigations into the Microsoft acquisition to see if the deal would harm competition. The European Union is concerned that Microsoft could prevent rivals from accessing titles such as Call of Duty.
Sony shares fell after Microsoft announced its planned acquisition in January as investors worried about losing access to popular Activision Blizzard games on the PlayStation. But Microsoft has worked hard to allay those concerns.
Smith said any move to make Call of Duty unavailable on Sony’s PlayStation console “wouldn’t make economic sense” because a “significant” portion of the game’s revenue comes from PlayStation game sales.
“Given the popularity of shared gaming, it would also be disastrous for the Call of Duty franchise and Xbox itself, alienating millions of gamers,” he noted. “That’s why we offered Sony a 10-year partnership agreement so that every new Call of Duty game comes to PlayStation on the same day it comes to Xbox. We would like to make the same commitment to other platforms and make it legal with regulators in the US, UK and EU potency.”
Still, it’s questionable whether this will be enough to quell Sony’s concerns.
Serkan Toto, CEO of Kantan Games, a Tokyo-based gaming consultancy, said, “A 10-year commitment sounds like a lot, and Sony is indeed ‘safe’ for the life of the PlayStation 5, but may run into trouble when it comes time to launch the next-gen console. “I don’t think the proposal will go far enough to allay Sony’s concerns, but it may calm regulators somewhat.”