Microsoft tells UK it will license 'Call of Duty' to Sony for 10 years (updated)

Tonner-One World Holdings

08/03/2023 15:35

(Adds Sony document, background)
    By Paul Sandle
       LONDON, March 8 (Reuters) - Microsoft  MSFT.O  said it
would license Activision Blizzard's  ATVI.O  "Call of Duty"
(CoD) to Sony for 10 years to address concerns raised by Britain
over its $69 billion takeover of the games maker, according to a
document published by the regulator.
    Microsoft last month struck a similar deal with Nvidia
Corp's  NVDA.O  gaming platform, dependent on it getting the
go-ahead for the much-contested acquisition. 
        Microsoft President Brad Smith had said he hoped that
rival Sony - which has strongly opposed the takeover - would
consider doing the same type of deal.
  
    Britain's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in
February said the deal could weaken the rivalry between
Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's PlayStation, and stifle competition
in cloud gaming. 
        It suggested that structural remedies could be needed to
allay its concerns, including divesting the business associated
with 'Call of Duty.'
  
        Sony, 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.
    It added that it believed that the criteria for the CMA to
consider behavioural remedies, such as those offered, had been
met.
        Sony, in its own submission to the CMA, rejected
Microsoft's proposals, saying the only way to preserve
competition in consoles and cloud gaming was to block the deal
or subject it to a structural remedy, such as making Microsoft
sell CoD.
  
        The biggest-ever deal in gaming, announced in January
last year, is facing scrutiny in the United States and in
Europe. 
  
        Microsoft is expected to secure EU antitrust approval
with its offer of licensing deals to rivals, three people
familiar with the matter told Reuters 
    earlier this month
    , helping it to clear a major hurdle.
  
        The CMA will rule on the deal on April 22.
  


 (Reporting by Paul Sandle and Yadarisa Shabong; Editing by
Kylie MacLellan and Mark Porter)
 ((paul.sandle@thomsonreuters.com; +44 20 7542 6843; Reuters
Messaging: paul.sandle.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))