According to a report, Sony is said to have flown to Seattle to negotiate an agreement with Microsoft over Call of Duty.
An oral hearing on Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard will be held next week before the European Commission in Brussels. There, the Windows company is supposed to meet Sony, which is opposed to the merger.
But both parties may have met before and spoken to each other. There are flight dates and aircraft designations attributed to Sony that are said to show that Sony executives flew from London to Seattle on February 6th.
The Foss Patents website quotes the video game specialist and entrepreneur Joost van Dreunen in this context. He learned from sources that “Sony’s corporate jet flew to Seattle last week for the first time in 18 months.”
Sony is now thought to have paid a visit to Microsoft to negotiate licensing deals for Call of Duty to keep the shooter playable on PlayStation long following the merger.
Sony’s visit to Microsoft’s headquarters was perhaps not entirely voluntary. Foss Patents speculated that if Sony does not participate constructively in a Call of Duty deal, some regulators may clear the acquisition.
In a brief filed with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Microsoft’s attorneys said:
“Since announcing the deal, Microsoft has repeatedly offered an agreement to license Call of Duty [Sony Interactive Entertainment] to close – first for five and then for ten years, a duration unprecedented in the industry”. [Sony] rejected.”
Now we have to wait and see what the oral hearing in Brussels on February 21 will reveal.
