Microsoft’s planned acquisition of Activision has well and truly devolved into a fight over Call of Duty at this point. In case you’ve been out of the loop, Sony has been fervently opposing the deal for obvious reasons - if it goes through, Microsoft would own the CoD franchise, and in theory, could decide to make it an Xbox exclusive.
"In theory" is the key phrase here, because it’s been repeatedly stated by Xbox boss Phil Spencer that there are no current plans to do this. In fact, it was recently revealed that Microsoft has entered a 10-year commitment to bring future CoD titles to Nintendo consoles.
Check out Modern Warfare II’s version of the iconic All Ghillied Up mission below.
Anyway, according to a new report from Bloomberg (via GamesRadar+), Microsoft has reportedly made a considerable offer to Sony during the negotiations between the companies. An anonymous source apparently claimed that in November, as part of a 10-year deal to keep CoD on PlayStation, Microsoft also said that Sony would be able to offer CoD titles on PlayStation Plus.
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If this is true, it’s not exactly anything new - previous CoD titles have been offered via PlayStation Plus before, but perhaps clarifying that Sony can do what it wants with the games is Microsoft’s way of showing good will? Even so, as GamesRadar+ points out, this clearly didn’t go down that well if it was the case - a few days ago, the Federal Trade Commission voted in favour of filing a suit to block the acquisition, as they believe Microsoft would be too powerful a competitor if the deal goes through.
However, this doesn’t mean that the buyout is off. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick reassured staff, saying: “This sounds alarming, so I want to reinforce my confidence that this deal will close.”
Topics: Microsoft, PlayStation, Call Of Duty, Activision, Sony, Xbox