The ras-le-bol offer.
Last January, Microsoft caused the thunder to resonate with an extraordinary acquisition. That of Activision Blizzard King for an amount of 68.7 billion dollars. An astronomical amount to afford one of the largest video game companies in the world whose catalog is breathtaking, both in terms of licenses and studios: Diablo, Overwatch, World of Warcraft, candy Crush, Crash Bandicoot, Infinity Ward, Beenox, Toys for Bob, Slegdhammerobviously Blizzard… and some call of duty…
A Call of Duty which, since this announcement, is the result of a war between Microsoft and a Sony which fears losing one of the games which achieve exceptional figures on PS4 and PS5. The proof, at the end of October, the PlayStation Twitter account congratulated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (a fortiori very nice) for achieving the biggest launch in franchise history on the PlayStation Store. Proof that the stakes for Sony are colossal.
Because frightened at the idea of seeing Microsoft lock the license exclusively, putting the Japanese giant in difficulty at the same time, Sony has embarked on numerous procedures to prevent this sale of almost 70 billion from being realized. . And since then, Microsoft has been entangled in proceedings with the various global regulatory services which are pushing back their decision to validate or not the transaction.
Yet Phil Spencer, boss of Xbox, has never ceased to proclaim his desire to see Microsoft continue to carry the Call of Duty license on Sony media, arguing that depriving oneself of such financial income would reveal deep incompetence. Explaining that Sony already has an agreement for the next three years, the firm did not see what more to do, not hesitating to show its teeth, castigating the attitude of a Sony which was not the last to cracking the exclusivity strategy.
Tired of this situation, Phil Spencer spoke recently explaining his position again at The Vergea position where he again pointed to Sony’s request:
“It’s not about pulling the rug out from under the PlayStation 7 and laughing and saying ‘you didn’t sign a contract long enough!’ “. There is just no contract where it says “forever”. ”
“This idea that we initial a contract that uses the words ‘forever’, I think is silly. But signing a longer-term contract that Sony feels comfortable with, I have no problem with that. ”
Seemingly wanting to put an end once and for all to the administrative problems preventing the firm from moving forward in this transaction which concerns much more than Call of Duty, Phil Spencer thus opened the door to a longer-term deal, in agreement with his wishes to leave call of duty on playstation.
And it is today that we learn thanks to the New York Times that Microsoft would have approached Sony in the process to offer a contract that ensures Sony to keep Call of Duty on its machines for the next ten years. A more than substantial offer about which Sony has refrained from commenting.
From now on, if the Japanese firm refuses this proposal, it may well be that the acquisition ofActivision Blizzard King by Microsoft be endorsed by the regulatory authorities. Because conversely, by again refusing the offer, it is Sony which would block Microsoft in its strategy and its development of the Xbox Game Pass.
To be continued…
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