Microsoft says 10 years is ‘sufficient for Sony to develop Call of Duty alternatives’

[John Elden Ring]

Microsoft has said it believes 10 years is long enough for Sony to develop rival offerings to the Call of Duty franchise.

Regulators including the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) have expressed concerns that Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard could significantly reduce PlayStation’s ability to compete given that it would see Microsoft gain ownership of the Call of Duty series, which Sony has called “irreplaceable”.

In a bid to gain approval for the deal, Microsoft has told regulators it’s willing to make each new Call of Duty game available on PlayStation the same day it comes to Xbox for a 10-year period, with full content and feature parity.

“At the Remedies Hearing the CMA asked Microsoft if the 10-year duration is sufficient and whether there would be a ‘cliff edge’ for Sony at the end of this period. The 10- year period is [redacted],” Microsoft wrote.

“Microsoft considers that a period of 10 years is sufficient for Sony, as a leading publisher and console platform, to develop alternatives to CoD.

“The 10- year term will extend into the next console generation [redacted]. Moreover, the practical effect of the remedy will go beyond the 10-year period, since games downloaded in the final year of the remedy can continue to be played for the lifetime of that console (and beyond, with backwards compatibility).”

 

[Loy310]

MS using loopholes to spice up the 10 year offer. They clearly cant wait to pull cod from PS, they cant hide that fact in their respons.

Funny we started with a 3 year offer to Sony, now we up to 10. Hope cma, eu see through ms bullshit and force them to divest or straight out block.

 

[Gediminas]

Microsoft has said it believes 10 years is long enough for Sony to develop rival offerings to the Call of Duty franchise.

Regulators including the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) have expressed concerns that Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard could significantly reduce PlayStation’s ability to compete given that it would see Microsoft gain ownership of the Call of Duty series, which Sony has called “irreplaceable”.

In a bid to gain approval for the deal, Microsoft has told regulators it’s willing to make each new Call of Duty game available on PlayStation the same day it comes to Xbox for a 10-year period, with full content and feature parity.

How many CoD they developed? How do they know?

 

[arvfab]

I find it ridiculous to base this whole deal on a single IP.

I also find this claim from MS ridiculous, especially as they had more than 10 years to build a portfolio of successful IPs, and failed.

 

[ethomaz]

The deal didn't even pass thought and they are already trying to find loopholes to be used after the deal goes thought

BTW imagine a company with near 20 years on the industry that couldn't even developer a sucessful game (including sequels) to match the success of Halo in 200x... asking another company to create a sucessful offering to CoD?

And they “games to everybody” mantra should be the biggest bullshit ever in game industry

Who believes them?

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

If Sony loses, it will be because of their weak arguments

 

[Bryank75]

If the deal goes through I want Sony to pull all Activision Blizzard games from sale on PSN and I would love Apple and Google to do the same.

 

[Swift_Star]

LMAO, so now it's pretty clear they intend to make CoD exclusive. Shoot themselves in the foot.

 

[Swift_Star]

If the deal goes through I want Sony to pull all Activision Blizzard games from sale on PSN and I would love Apple and Google to do the same.

Not gonna happen but MS will run ABK into the ground, mark my words.

 

[Bryank75]

If Sony loses, it will be because of their weak arguments

Well many of their arguments have merit, it just seems many people do not want to see things from their perspective when they stand to gain cheap access to games in the short term....

I mean, this is the second large publisher buyout by MSFT in a very short timespan and it was preceded by them buying 5-6 multiplatform developers already.

They have some of the biggest shooters already.... Doom, Halo, Quake, Wolfenstein, Perfect Dark. If they dont have enough IP's, then how many is enough?

They bought Minecraft and it is on mobile, one of the biggest mobile games..... yet they claim no mobile presence.

The truth is that Microsoft has twisted and contorted itself in a ball of lies and Xbo fans are dismissing all of that because in their hearts they want to deny PlayStation games more than they want to play any games themselves. They want to see PlayStation taken down for some small 'pee-pee' energy reason....

 

[Bryank75]

LMAO, so now it's pretty clear they intend to make CoD exclusive. Shoot themselves in the foot.

Was always the plan.... was always the main objective. Everything else is just a red herring.

 

[AngryRobotBees]

Just build up one of the most popular games in the world the same way we did, with a small $70bn loan from your parent, easy.

 

[Dr Bass]

Just build up one of the most popular games in the world the same way we did, with a small $70bn loan from your parent, easy.

It ain't a loan if you're never paying it back.

 

[Aidendelaney95]

"We can't do it, which is why we want to buy CoD, but--"

 

[Dabaus]

Strange admission to make at this stage of the regulatory process but maybe deep down MS wants this deal to fail?

 

[peter42O]

Awesome. Sooner this shitty franchise goes exclusive, the sooner it becomes a platform and all those support studios can do other games instead of being stuck on COD every damn year.

 

[Zeroing]

That sounds very arrogant to me, specially when MS are the ones who just want 3rd party IPs to become exclusive and aren’t interested in making IPs to become competitive with Sony.

Double standards everywhere!

 

[Alabtrosmyster]

Not gonna happen but MS will run ABK into the ground, mark my words.

So neither MS nor Sony will have a viable CoD "alternative" within 10 years?

That would be kind of ironic, but given how none of the studios they have bought since 2017 have released anything significant... This seems reasonable in a twisted way.

 

[Alabtrosmyster]

That sounds very arrogant to me, specially when MS are the ones who just want 3rd party IPs to become exclusive and aren’t interested in making IPs to become competitive with Sony.

Double standards everywhere!

Sony is arrogant, MS is pro consumer.

 

[KiryuRealty]

Strange admission to make at this stage of the regulatory process but maybe deep down MS wants this deal to fail?

At this point, they already know they aren’t getting approval, so they are flinging mud at Sony and the regulators to save face.