Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) President Brad Smith said his company offered Sony (NYSE:SONY) a 10-year contract to make each new release of Call of Duty available on Sony’s PlayStation console at the same time as the U.S. giant’s Xbox.
The Redmond, Washington-headquartered tech giant is hoping the move will assuage regulators’ and its rivals’ antitrust fears over its proposed $69-billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI), the developer behind Call of Duty, a popular shooter game.
Last month, Politico reported that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is likely to file an antitrust lawsuit to block Microsoft’s takeover of Activision
In response, Smith wrote an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal on Monday defending the acquisition as “good for gamers” and criticizing any potential FTC lawsuit.
Regulators in the European Union and the U.K. have opened antitrust probes into Microsoft’s proposed takeover to examine whether the deal would hurt competition. The EU is concerned Microsoft may block access to games such as “Call of Duty” to rivals.
Sony shares sank initially after Microsoft announced the acquisition plans in January as investors feared PlayStation would not get access to hit Activision games. But Microsoft has looked to assuage those fears.
Any move to make Call of Duty unavailable to Sony’s PlayStation console would be “economically irrational,” Microsoft’s Smith said because a “vital” part of the game’s revenue comes from PlayStation game sales.
MSFT shares picked up $1.08 to $251.28, while those for SONY tailed off $1.27, or 1.6%, to $80.34, and ATVI gained 36 cents to $76.69.
