With Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard being investigated by numerous regulatory bodies and how the company will handle future Call of Duty releases being in question, it has been signing binding agreements with several companies, including the likes of Nintendo and Nvidia, to commit to bringing Call of Duty games to their platforms with full feature and content parity for at least the next ten years, with more similar agreements in the works as well.
However, the United States’ Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft in December to block the acquisition, doesn’t seem satisfied with said agreements. In recently filed documents (via VGC), the agency said that Microsoft is signing the deals in an attempt to convince regulatory bodies to approve its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, but has actually refused to provide requested underlying details.
“Despite clearly intending to use these agreements in its defense, Microsoft has refused to produce underlying internal documents related to these agreements, or communications with third parties other than Nvidia, Nintendo and Sony,,” the FTC said. “Microsoft should be not permitted to introduce or rely on these agreements without producing the requested underlying discovery.”
The agency is seeking “all documents related to exclusivity of content Microsoft acquired from ZeniMax and exclusivity of content Microsoft proposes to acquire from Activision.”
Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard is currently also being investigated by the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority, and the European Commission, though final decisions are expected to published within the coming weeks.