Microsoft made some big headlines recently when it announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Activision Blizzard in an all-cash deal of nearly $69 billion. Given the current stature of ABK in the public eye, the deal has raised many questions and gave way to new rumours, although things are sure to be confirmed in upcoming months.
Many have wondered whether the likes of Call of Duty will be going exclusive to Xbox platforms, and while we don’t have any definite answer yet, DFC Intelligence analyst David Cole believes it to not be the case. Cole says that making Call of Duty exclusive to the platform will most likely cause problems to get the deal past anti-trust regulatory bodies (since that way Microsoft could be deemed to be making an anti-competitive move by prohibiting access to Call of Duty on competitive platforms).
Speaking via GamesIndustry.biz, Cole said, “It should also be noted that on the console side Call of Duty is really the only big franchise from Activision. The big issue is if COD becomes a Microsoft exclusive. Right now, I don’t think [it will]. For one thing, it would be hard to get it past regulators if they want to lock the competition out.”
Reports have claimed that Microsoft plans to keep some of Activision’s content exclusive to their platforms, but if the company’s track record with the ZeniMax acquisition is anything to go by, one cannot be entirely certain about how things are handled once the deal is finalized.
We examined the potential impact of this acquisition in a recent editorial- read more on that through here.
