Kotaku claims that Microsoft is making generous concessions to the European Commission in exchange for a 10-year agreement with Sony for the Call of Duty series and other ABK titles. The recent Call of Duty game had the most incredible opening weekend in the entertainment industry's history. All ABK games, including the FPS, mentioned earlier, would be under the hands of Sony's biggest gaming rival if the agreement between Microsoft and ABK goes through.
Is Microsoft taking over Sony Call of Duty?
With the acquisition of Activision Blizzard (ABK), Microsoft set out to change gaming history, and Sony isn't too happy about it. Sony has been very vocal about its concerns after Xbox beat PlayStation 5 in the domestic market. It has even gone so far as to call for a regulatory veto after its own company has been hit with a sizable lawsuit over pricing, improperly handling players' physical goods, and a refusal to grant refunds for those goods.
Has Microsoft been forced to make a deal with Sony?
Microsoft is forced to make deals left and right to complete the acquisition. Sony's request for a regulatory veto and declaration of protest brought about the entire problem. Sony reportedly objects to the world's biggest tech company acquiring one of the oldest and largest independent video game publishers. This directly jeopardises Sony's already precarious position in the gaming sector.
Due to this and an insider trading issue, Microsoft was required to negotiate with many committees for a whole year to satisfy the European Union and buy ABK. According to the rumoured agreement between Microsoft and Sony. The game, Call of Duty, would be accessible on Sony's PlayStation platform for at least ten more years. They supported earlier claims by Xbox CEO Phil Spencer that the business had no plans to produce Call of Duty.
What is the agenda behind the deal?
That would be a Pyrrhic triumph because it would impair PlayStation's selection while robbing Microsoft of a sizable chunk of the market for one of the biggest games that Microsoft would soon be in control of. Even Sony acknowledged the absurdity of restricting access to its games to its gaming devices. Since PlayStation has been the superior gaming system for many years, Microsoft has been forced to make concessions and improve its customers' subscription service.
Ultimately, it moved the scales so much in favour of the internet giant that Sony was compelled to alter its subscription service to maintain its player count. Although the sales speak favourably of PlayStation, Xbox's gaming services and hardware are becoming more widely available to the general public. Ultimately, the campaign was unsuccessful.
Conclusion
Because of the EU's current regulatory actions and reports that the FTC may file an antitrust case to try to stop the purchase, Microsoft must clear several difficult hurdles to complete the acquisition of Sony. This is highly problematic because the primary goal of the purchase was to overcome ABK's and Microsoft's respective deficiencies in computing capability and machine learning know-how. Everyone would gain significantly from this agreement, especially since it would put to the test existing partnerships between tech and gaming titans in China and other eastern nations.