2023-06-28 19:17:31
The CEO of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard, Bobby Kotick, appeared before a federal judge on Wednesday to urge Microsoft to allow Microsoft to buy his company for $69 billion (roughly Rs. 566,300 crores). Kotick said that any effort to make Call of Duty exclusive to one platform, as Microsoft critics have said, could alienate the roughly 100 million people who play the game each month. “You would have a rebellion if you wanted to remove the game from one platform,” Kotick said. He said removing Call of Duty from PlayStation, which is made by the Sony Group, would be “very damaging” to Activision’s business. The FTC asked a judge to pause the Microsoft acquisition to allow the agency’s internal judge to rule on the case. In the past, the side that lost in federal court often conceded and the internal process was overturned. Much of the testimony in the trial focused on Activision’s Call of Duty, one of the best-selling video games of all time. Today it is available on smartphones, multiple consoles, and desktop computers. Kotick said he considered making Call of Duty available on the Nintendo Switch but decided against it because he felt the console wouldn’t be a big seller. “I made a bad judgment,” he said. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is scheduled to testify Wednesday afternoon before Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley in federal court. The Federal Trade Commission, which enforces antitrust law, has taken a tougher line on mergers during the Biden administration. The agency says the deal will give Microsoft, which makes the Xbox console, exclusive access to Activision games, leaving Nintendo and Sony Group out in the cold. To address antitrust concerns, Microsoft offered to license Call of Duty to competitors. She also argued that it would be better financially by licensing the games to all comers. The deal has been approved by several jurisdictions, but has been opposed by the US Federal Trade Commission and Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority. © Thomson Archyde.com 2023 Affiliate links may be generated automatically – see our Ethics Statement for details.
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