Microsoft has been fighting to have its massive contract with the makers of Call of Duty, Warcraft, Candy Crush, and other well-known games approved by authorities on both sides of the border. Microsoft has said that the transaction is mainly focused on mobile gaming, an area where Microsoft has a limited presence in a sector that is dominated by Chinese behemoths like Tencent. Last month, Mr. Spencer and other Microsoft executives brought an Xbox, a PlayStation, a Nintendo Switch and other devices to a meeting with regulators in London, where they showed off Call of Duty and other games to illustrate a dynamic market, people familiar with the visit said. Regulators are also worried what the deal might mean for the future, when cloud computing lets people stream sophisticated games to various devices, including mobile phones.” After Sony’s existing deal with Activision expires, which is expected to happen after the release of a new game from Black Ops developer Treyarch in 2024, Xbox boss Phil Spencer stated in September that Microsoft had committed to making Call of Duty available on PlayStation for “several more years.” Microsoft’s plan to maintain the Call of Duty franchise on PlayStation platforms was criticized openly by PlayStation chief Jim Ryan, who wants access to future Call of Duty games on similar terms and indefinitely. Since then, UK and European authorities have turned their preliminary probes into more thorough ones, and Microsoft has said that it is open to making adjustments about the future of the Call of Duty franchise. Microsoft’s chief of gaming reportedly referred to the 10-year promise on The Verge’s Decoder podcast: Microsoft would have the resources it needs to introduce Xbox games and Xbox developers to a new audience on phones and tablets if it merged with Activision. There’s no reason to think that the console market will be affected by the booming mobile gaming market in the next few years. Mobile gaming has already established itself as a dominant force in several large nations. To achieve this, Microsoft is working to integrate games like Call of Duty Mobile while also bolstering its nascent subscription service Xbox Game Pass with a wealth of fresh content.
