Microsoft has announced that it will be licensing Activision’s successful title, Call of Duty, to Sony for a period of 10 years for users in Europe in an attempt to address issues raised by Britain over the US$69 billion acquisition of the company.
The software giant also made a similar deal with NVIDIA’s gaming platform.
Even though Sony and Microsoft are rivals in the game industry, the latter hped that Sony would do the same if it ever had the opportunity in future.
Also note that Sony strongly opposed the acquisition of Activision but upon the completion oof the deal, Microsoft is trying not to appear as a monopoly in the industry , hence the license.
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The British Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) back in February made it known that the deal could in fact weaken the rivalry between Microsoft’s popular Xbox gaming platform and Sony’s PlayStation platform while stiling cloud-gaming competition.
The CMA further suggested that structural remedies could be required in order to allay its concerns while also divesting the business associate with the COD title.
Microsoft, in its response to the CMA’s findings, said the package of remedies it would offer protected all CoD players in Britain and provided substantial benefits to consumers and developers.
“Microsoft is proposing a package of licensing remedies which (i) guarantee parity between the PlayStation and Xbox platforms in respect of CoD and (ii) ensure wide availability of CoD and other Activision titles on cloud gaming services,” Microsoft said in the document published on Wednesday.
The company also added that it believed that the criteria for the CMA to consider behavioral remedies like the ones offered has been met.
Sony initially rejected Microsoft’s proposal according to the former’s submission o the CMA making it known that the only way to preserve competition in consoles and cloud gaming market is to block the deal from happening or subject it to a structural remedy such as making Microsoft sell the COD title.
The biggest-ever deal in gaming, announced in January last year, is facing scrutiny in the United States and in Europe.
The step Microsoft has taken to avert potential antitrust strikes is by offering the COD title’s license to Sony and other rivals in the game industry. The deal will be ruled on April 22nd by the CMA.
