Microsoft recently announced a partnership agreement with Nintendo and Nvidia respectively to release Xbox games and Call of Duty (if the acquisition is successful) on Nvidia GeForce Now and Nintendo platforms for up to 10 years. This was done to appease EU antitrust regulators, who had issued an antitrust warning about Microsoft’s merger with Activision Blizzard.
However, Sony still refuses to sign any agreement with Microsoft promising that Call of Duty will remain on PlayStation. According to a source at GamesIndustry.biz, Microsoft had applied to Sony but was denied, and the two companies have yet to sign any 10-year agreement.
On Tuesday local time, EU regulators held a closed-door hearing in Brussels on Microsoft’s acquisition of Blizzard. After meeting with the European Commission, Microsoft President and Vice Chairman Brad Smith said, “We don’t have an agreement with Sony yet, but I hope we can come to an agreement. If Sony chooses to continue to block the deal, it will reduce competition and slow down the market. But they also have the option to sit down with us and hammer out an agreement.”
Microsoft’s acquisition of Blizzard has entered a critical period in which the deal lives or dies. The U.S. regulator, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), announced last December that it was suing Microsoft, putting the word out to block the acquisition; nearly two weeks ago, the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) released preliminary findings that the deal could harm gamers in the U.K. and suggested some possible remedies, including forcing Microsoft to sell off some of its Activision Blizzard business related to Call of Duty. Looking at the current action schedule, European regulators could make a final decision on whether to block the deal within April. The EU aims to complete its review of the Microsoft deal by April 11, a deadline that could also be delayed. The U.K. investigation is scheduled to conclude by April 26. And the U.S. FTC could be embroiled in a much longer litigation process after formal charges are filed.
