Microsoft must convince competition watchdogs worldwide that the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the company behind ‘Call of Duty’, is no problem. At a press conference in Brussels, which our editors attended, CEO Brad Smith announced that Xbox games will be coming to game streaming service Nvidia Geforce Now. If the acquisition is approved, Activision games, such as the popular shooting game, will also come to that service. A deal with Nintendo was also announced earlier in the day.
Competition watchdogs, including the European Commission, fear that Microsoft will remove ‘Call of Duty’ from the Sony PlayStation. That company is therefore the biggest opponent of the deal that costs Microsoft about $ 69 billion. There is also the fear that Microsoft will add games such as ‘Diablo’ and ‘World of Warcraft’ to the Game Pass subscription and the associated game streaming service.
To counter those arguments, Microsoft has agreed with Nvidia that games that can be played on the PC can also be streamed via Geforce Now. That is a direct competitor. When the acquisition is complete, Microsoft will also bring games such as ‘Call of Duty’ to the game streaming service. The deal is for a period of ten years.
The tech giant has also signed a ten-year contract with Nintendo to bring the shooting game and other Xbox games to the Switch and successors. Smith announced this on Tuesday morning. “We want every game on every platform to work the way customers expect it to,” the Microsoft CEO said during the press conference. The last ‘Call of Duty’ playable on Nintendo hardware was 2013’s ‘Call of Duty: Ghosts’ on Wii U.
There is no deal with Sony yet. “I walk around with an envelope containing the contract that we presented to Sony before Christmas. We are waiting for their response,” Smith said at the press conference. “We are more optimistic about closing the acquisition today. If competition watchdogs approve the deal, Call of Duty will be available on an additional 150 million devices.”
In early December, Microsoft also said it had agreed with Valve to keep Call of Duty available on Steam. That store is one of the main platforms to buy games to play on the computer. Valve also makes the Steam Deck, a portable console that looks a lot like an oversized Nintendo Switch.
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