It’s been over a year since Microsoft announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard for $69 billion. This has met resistance from rivals such as Sony and regulators from the EU, UK, US and more. Microsoft has proposed a deal that could help allay concerns about reduced competition in the gaming market if this deal goes through.
Microsoft president Brad Smith has announced that his company has signed a 10-year deal with Nintendo that will ensure Xbox and Activision titles will be available to gamers using Nintendo hardware. The big ticket item is call of Dutybut the contract also covers other games.
Announcing it today is no coincidence: Microsoft representatives including Smith and Xbox head Phil Spencer met with EU regulators today to discuss the proposed acquisition. Activision sent its CEO, Bobby Kotick, Sony sent its head of games Jim Ryan.
Additionally, EA, Steam, Nvidia, Google, and others had representatives in attendance, as well as a number of national watchdogs concerned about what a Microsoft-owned Activision Blizzard might mean for the gaming market.
Microsoft which has Nintendo on board pressures Sony to agree to a similar deal. Jim Ryan called a previous 3-year proposal “inadequate on many levels”. To put things in perspective, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War was the second most played game on the PlayStation (second only to Fortnite) when the deal was announced a year ago.
The Microsoft/Nintendo Agreement states that new call of Duty the games will release on Nintendo hardware the same day they release on Xbox and PlayStation. And these won’t even be scaled-down versions, Microsoft promises “equal functionality and complete content.”
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