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Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) president Brad Smith confirms the company's looking to fend off objections to its $69B Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) by offering rival Sony (SONY) a 10-year guarantee for same-day Call of Duty releases.
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Smith responded to recent regulatory tensions at home and abroad by saying Microsoft's acquisition of the videogame publishing giant (and its best-selling first-person shooter) is "good for gamers."
Following reports of a potential Federal Trade Commission antitrust lawsuit, Smith says "That would be a huge mistake. It would hurt competition, consumers and thousands of game developers."
The company's Xbox "remains in third place in console gaming, stuck behind Sony's dominant PlayStation and the Nintendo Switch (OTCPK:NTDOY)," and Microsoft has "no meaningful presence in the mobile game industry."
It's about modern innovation and offering consumers the options for cloud gaming, he says - for which Microsoft needs a strong library of popular games ("we simply don't have enough").
"Think about how much better it is to stream a movie from your couch than drive to Blockbuster. We want to bring the same sort of innovation to the videogame industry," Smith writes.
Sony is the "loudest" objector, he notes. "That’s why we’ve offered Sony a 10-year contract to make each new Call of Duty release available on PlayStation the same day it comes to Xbox." He adds they'll make the same commitment to other platforms.
Speculation about a potential long-term Call of Duty access deal has been rising as analysts weigh the likelihood that the deal can go through.