The Redmond-based tech giant has signed a deal with Nintendo to make Call of Duty available on the Japanese company’s platforms for ten years.

Yesterday, Microsoft attended a closed-door meeting with the European Commission, where several other companies were present alongside Sony (and MS couldn’t get them to agree…). After that, a press conference was held in Brussels, where GeForce Now was among the topics (but we won’t repeat ourselves: we have already written about it in more detail here). Microsoft did everything to make itself look like a small company (which is disgusting for a company of this size because they have endless revenues from Windows and Office, for example…).

Gamesindustry reported on the press conference, and Brad Smith, Microsoft’s chairman, says Sony is “super-dominant”: last holiday season, PlayStation beat Xbox 69/31%. In Europe, it’s 80/20; in Japan, 94/6, and internationally (if you exclude Nintendo), Sony’s share is close to 70%. Nintendo shouldn’t be ignored because the Switch outsold the PlayStation 4 (it’s official!), and it’s all about belittling Xbox. Sony doesn’t have $68.7 billion to buy Activision Blizzard King, while Microsoft does…

Microsoft refuses to take Call of Duty out of the equation because Smith says that even if they could buy Activision’s Blizzard King, “it wouldn’t be feasible or realistic.” Smith says on Twitter that Microsoft has signed a binding contract with Nintendo, so Call of Duty will appear on the Japanese company’s hardware with the same content and features as on Xbox so that the players can enjoy the franchise alongside PlayStation players. The announcement would also offer a similar offering for “other video game platforms,” likely referring to PlayStation.

It’s safe to say: Microsoft is very keen to gobble up another publisher… Anything to sweet-talk the regulators…

Source: WCCFTech, WCCFTech