Microsoft president Brad Smith said it isn’t feasible for Xbox to sell Call of Duty or parts of Activision Blizzard. Bloomberg reports that Smith’s comments come after U.K. regulators presented that option as a possible condition for allowing the $69 billion Microsoft-Activision deal to go through.
Following a closed-door meeting with European Union commissioners in Brussels, he told reporters it isn’t “feasible or realistic to think that one game or one slice of this company can be carved out and separated from the rest.”
During the hearing, Microsoft reaffirmed its commitment to making Activision Blizzard games available to broader audiences. The same day, Xbox and Nintendo signed a 10-year contract to make Call of Duty available on Nintendo Switch if the deal goes through – though what form of the Switch and whether it would be cloud-based or a full install remains unclear. Microsoft also announced an agreement with NVIDIA to make all Xbox Cloud Gaming games available on NVIDIA’s GeForce platform, but only if the deal goes through.
Cloud gaming has been one of the main sticking points in regulators in the U.S., U.K., and Europe allowing the deal to move forward. Their concern is that Xbox, which they believe already has a head start in cloud gaming technology and a broad selection of available titles, would hamper competition on other cloud platforms if they also added Activision Blizzard games, namely Call of Duty, to their service.
Microsoft has yet to issue an official response to the U.K. commission, which is expected to file its full report in April. Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s lawsuit against the company to block the merger remains ongoing.
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF
