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According to the sources of Reutersthe head of the European Antitrust Margrethe Vestager and the head of the video game division of sonyJim Ryan, met the day before yesterday, Wednesday 25 January, to discuss what is the hot topic of the period in the gaming world – at least if you look at the more “political” and economic aspect: the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft It is now becoming a rather long saga, and it is still extremely difficult to understand how it will end.
Unfortunately, the newspaper does not reveal in detail what the two talked about, but it is certainly no mystery that Sony is against the acquisition – in fact, it could be argued that she has been one of the most critical voices so far, at least publicly. The Japanese giant fears above all for the future of Call of Duty, the FPS franchise that is defined as the quintessential genre, at least these days. Sony fears that if CoD becomes an Xbox/PC PlayStation exclusive it will no longer be able to compete.
Microsoft has tried in every way to explain that the goal is not to make CoD exclusive, but as opposed to bringing it to platforms as well on which it has never arrived so far (for example Nintendo Switch, or its heir). Microsoft has even offered Sony, in a legally binding contract, at least another ten years of CoD to stay on PlayStation, and a simultaneous release with Xbox. Despite this, Sony remains more or less stuck to its position.
As far as the Antitrust authorities are concerned, their position is decidedly less clear-cut. It is clear that there are doubts, otherwise the go-ahead would have already arrived a long time ago (remember that the acquisition was even announced just over a year ago). The prospects are not very good for Microsoft: not even the US FTC seems particularly enthusiastic about the idea. By now anyway the wait is winding down: the coming months will be decisive. The EU, for example, should express its final judgment by mid-April.
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