Microsoft appears to be trying to sweeten the deal for regulators as it works to make the case for its acquisition of video game developing and publishing giant Activision Blizzard.
As the company prepares for challenges to the deal, President Brad Smith announced last week that Microsoft had inked a 10-year deal with Japan’s Nintendo to bring the storied “Call of Duty” franchise and other games released on its Xbox console to Nintendo’s platforms at the same time. Phil Spencer, who heads Microsoft’s Xbox division, also announced a similar deal with Santa Clara-based Nvidia that will allow the company to carry both Microsoft and Activision Blizzard games on its cloud-based streaming platform, GeForce NOW.
“This is just part of our commitment to bring Xbox games and Activision titles like ‘Call of Duty’ to more players on more platforms,” Smith said on Twitter. “With today’s agreements with NVIDIA and Nintendo, we will bring ‘Call of Duty’ to 150 million new devices. That will serve consumers and advance competition.”
Both deals are contingent on the approval of Microsoft’s $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard, which is based in Santa Monica.
That deal faces multiple hurdles, most notably a lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission seeking to block the deal and an antitrust probe launched by the European Union. Those regulators have expressed concern that Microsoft would harm competition among video game companies by claiming exclusivity to the wildly popular “Call of Duty” franchise as well as others owned by Activision Blizzard.
Perhaps sensing those allegations, Microsoft has telegraphed a willingness to share since November, when it first announced that it was talking with Nintendo about hammering out a deal for “Call of Duty” games. It has also reportedly reached out to Sony, which owns the PlayStation platform, about working out a deal to continue bringing “Call of Duty” to the console.
Microsoft has already agreed to continue offering Activision Blizzard titles on Steam, a digital gaming platform owned by developer Valve.
Microsoft’s deal with Nintendo is particularly notable because there hasn’t been a “Call of Duty” game on a Nintendo platform for a decade, not since “Call of Duty: Ghosts” was released on the now-defunct Wii U console in 2013. The deal also accompanies rumors that Nintendo is working on a successor to its popular Switch console, which was launched in 2017.
