According to reports, recently Microsoft’s lawyer suddenly said that Microsoft does not know why Activision Blizzard’s “Call of Duty” is so special, or even when “Call of Duty” was originally released. In January last year, Microsoft announced that it would spend $68.7 billion to acquire Activision Blizzard, emphasizing that the acquisition will help the company acquire several “iconic game IPs”, including “Call of Duty”, “Warcraft” and “Candy Crush”. “Legend” etc.
Subsequently, gamers and regulators worried that Microsoft might stop offering the “Call of Duty” series of games on Sony’s PlayStation platform. Recently, Microsoft’s lawyer suddenly stated that Microsoft does not know why “Call of Duty” is so special, or even when “Call of Duty” was originally released.
Earlier, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) tried to block Microsoft’s acquisition through litigation. Microsoft then responded to the FTC with a 37-page response, one of which reads as follows:
“Microsoft asserts that there is insufficient knowledge or information to determine whether industry perceptions about Call of Duty and its original release date are true, or about Call of Duty’s launch and typical release timeline, and the assignment of Activision to Call of Duty resources and budgets, including the number of studios working on Call of Duty, are true.”
Microsoft’s argument is difficult to convince. Much of the information Microsoft is asking the FTC to certify can be found on Google, and Microsoft certainly has many details, including the budgets and approximate headcounts of each studio working on Call of Duty.
First, Activision Blizzard will provide these details as part of its due diligence on the deal before Microsoft announces that it will acquire Activision Blizzard. Second, even if Activision Blizzard didn’t offer it up, Microsoft does a lot of research. For example, for the lawsuit between Epic and Apple, Microsoft’s “game business planning and strategy team” produced a 67-page document that analyzed all of Microsoft’s major competitors in detail, and even estimated a lot of non-public information, such as Sony’s PlayStation Now cloud gaming business generated $359 million in revenue in 2019.
Therefore, Microsoft may well be playing dumb on purpose. Despite Microsoft’s gaming chief Phil Spencer’s repeated insistence that Call of Duty will continue to be offered on rival consoles, Microsoft has always been keen to make Call of Duty an Xbox exclusive. topic of interest.
Nintendo and Microsoft have reached an agreement to keep Call of Duty on the Nintendo platform for 10 years after Activision Blizzard is acquired. Microsoft also offered Sony a 10-year contract extension after Sony previously rejected a three-year extension. Sony has yet to respond to the new proposal.
