Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com November 22 news, in January this year, Microsoft Xbox announced the acquisition of game giant Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion (about 489.831 billion yuan).

Spencer, head of Microsoft's Xbox business, promised that even if the acquisition was approved, the call of Duty series would still exist on Sony's PlayStation console for "several years" (beyond Sony's existing contract) and that the next three "call of Duty" games would still be launched on the PS platform. "We value our relationship with Sony," he added.

But even so, Sony PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan said publicly that "Microsoft's proposal is inadequate on many levels" and repeatedly told EU censors about the potential risks of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Mr Ryan said Microsoft was "a technology giant with a long history of industry dominance" and that "if the deal continues, the choices that gamers have today are likely to disappear".

Sony told UK regulators that call of Duty was so popular that any restrictions imposed on it would affect consumers' choice of console purchases and could put PlayStation 5, the current global leader in the console market, at a disadvantage. If Xbox has any exclusive content, it will affect the player's choice (although PS has always been exclusive).

In announcing its decision to conduct a more detailed investigation into the acquisition in September, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it thought call of Duty was so important that losing access to it (or to the competition terms) could seriously affect Sony's revenue and user base.

In response to CMA, Microsoft called the regulator's concerns "wrong" and claimed that it had "accepted complaints from Sony without proper scrutiny".

Microsoft later confirmed in a filing with CMA, the UK regulator, that there was an agreement between Activision Blizzard and Sony to guarantee that the game would not be able to log on to XGP subscriptions for several years.

So far, regulators in Saudi Arabia and Brazil have approved the deal, but antitrust regulators in the United States, Europe and elsewhere have yet to make a decision.

On November 9, the European Commission announced an in-depth investigation into Microsoft's planned $69 billion acquisition of video game giant Activision Blizzard because of concerns that Microsoft's acquisition could affect franchises for popular games such as call of Duty.

It seems to be another critical moment in the debate between Sony and Microsoft. Microsoft has expressed its willingness to make concessions on the future development of the call of Duty series.

Microsoft told the New York Times that it had proposed a 10-year agreement with Sony on November 11 that would guarantee that the call of Duty series would remain on PlayStation for 10 years. Sony declined to comment.

Microsoft said Sony was misleading regulators, who told the New York Times that "the company exaggerated the importance of call of Duty to its viability."

Notably, Spencer also said last week that he was willing to make a commitment to Sony and regulators that call of Duty would stay on PlayStation for longer than the current agreement.

"I think we would write a contract in which the word 'forever' might be a bit stupid, but I have no problem with the long-term commitment that Sony is willing to accept and the long-term commitment that regulators are willing to accept."

CTOnews.com has reported that Phil Spencer also said in an interview with The Verge that if the company does not gain a foothold in mobile, it will be difficult for Xbox to continue to operate as a global company, and claimed that Activision Blizzard bought Activision Blizzard mainly to win over Candy Crush developer King, not "call of Duty."

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