What you need to know
- Microsoft has entered an agreement to acquire Activision Blizzard for almost $69 billion.
- The company is starting to seek regulator approval for the deal to go through.
- Microsoft is committing to bringing Call of Duty to PlayStation even once the deal goes through.
Microsoft is committing to bringing Call of Duty to PlayStation even after the deal to acquire Activision Blizzard closes. This part of the steps laid out in a blog post Microsoft published on Wednesday, explaining how certain things will be handled as the company seeks regulator approval to acquire Activision Blizzard for almost $69 billion.
"To be clear, Microsoft will continue to make Call of Duty and other popular Activision Blizzard titles available on PlayStation through the term of any existing agreement with Activision," Microsoft president Brad Smith explains. "And we have committed to Sony that we will also make them available on PlayStation beyond the existing agreement and into the future so that Sony fans can continue to enjoy the games they love. We are also interested in taking similar steps to support Nintendo's successful platform. We believe this is the right thing for the industry, for gamers and for our business."
This is different from how Microsoft approached acquiring ZeniMax Media, parent company of Bethesda Softworks. While Microsoft is seeing through any contractual obligations for timed exclusives like Deathloop, future Bethesda titles like Starfield are exclusive to Xbox and PC, or more specifically, platforms where Game Pass exists.
The deal for Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard is currently slated to close no later than June 2023. When the deal closes, Microsoft will add Activision Blizzard to Xbox Game Studios and Bethesda Softworks, increasing the Xbox first-party branch to three different publishers.
