The EU reportedly won’t make Microsoft sell IPs like Call of Duty as concessions to help the Activision Blizzard deal go through. Rumors had suggested that some antitrust bodies would make this a requirement for the deal to be approved, but the European Commission is not expected to be one of those.
Call of Duty licensing deals should be enough for Microsoft in Europe
Microsoft is poised to offer licensing deals for Activision Blizzard IPs if the acquisition goes through, including a 10-year deal that would keep Call of Duty on PS5 or PS4. A deal has recently been signed to bring the franchise to Nintendo Switch and Nvidia’s GeForce Now platform too. According to sources who spoke to Reuters, this should be enough to satisfy the concerns of the European Commission which is no longer expected to demand Microsoft sell assets like Call of Duty if the deal goes through. A Microsoft spokesperson said:
[We are] committed to offering effective and easily enforceable solutions that address the European Commission’s concerns. Our commitment to grant long-term 100% equal access to Call of Duty to Sony, Steam, NVIDIA, and others preserves the deal’s benefits to gamers and developers and increases competition in the market
The European Commission had not commented on the reports at the time of writing.
