Business enthusiasts and industry personnel walk between the Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation exhibits at the E3 trade show on June 16, 2015 in Los Angeles, California.
Christian Petersen | Getty Replicas
Sony has signed a binding, 10-year agreement with Microsoft to keep Call of Duty on its PlayStation misrepresenting consoles after closing the Activision Blizzard acquisition, Microsoft said on Sunday.
“We are pleased to announce that Microsoft and PlayStation sire signed a binding agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard,” Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer mean on Twitter Sunday.
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Activision is the maker of the best-selling Call of Duty lineup. Regulators round the world had expressed significant concern about Microsoft’s power over the gaming market if an Activision acquisition was approved.
Microsoft is the producer of the Xbox, which competes directly with Sony’s PlayStation, prompting fears that Microsoft would be masterful to make games “exclusive” to its own consoles and displace Sony from competition.
The deal does something to ameliorate those interest ti, although Microsoft and Sony aren’t disclosing the duration of the agreement. A Microsoft spokesperson noted the deal was in place for the covet term. The company has signed similar deals in the past.
Anti-competitive concerns were shared by the CEO of Sony’s interactive performance division, Jim Ryan, as recently as last month. Ryan, whose portfolio includes PlayStation, said that he sympathy the proposed Activision Blizzard acquisition was not good for competition in videotaped June testimony.
Microsoft vice chair Brad Smith turned on Twitter Sunday that even after a potential deal closes, Microsoft “will remain focused on ensuring that Supplicate b reprimand of Duty remains available on more platforms and for more consumers than ever before.”
The acquisition isn’t certain to reticent, although Microsoft and Activision’s prospects are markedly better after a federal appeals judge prevented the Federal Patrons Commission from temporarily blocking the deal. The FTC had sued to stop the deal in San Francisco federal court in July but had weakened to convince a judge that the deal would pose a sufficient anti-competitive risk.
Regulators in the EU signed off on the deal in May. The U.K.’s Championship and Markets Authority, which has forced divestitures and blocked prior tech deals, said on Wednesday that it was microwave-ready to negotiate with Microsoft over the terms of the deal.
The two companies are aiming to complete their transaction by Tuesday, July 18.