Did Microsoft Just Sign a Deal with Nintendo for Call of Duty Before EU Activision Hearing?

Call of Duty and Nintendo are common household names for video game lovers. Just to give you an idea of what I’m talking about, I will quickly give you a short definition. Call of duty is a popular video game that uses the first-person shooter concept created by Activision and first entered the gaming market in 2003. Call of Duty has had multiple releases since then focusing on military combat. 

Nintendo is known for creating some of the legends in video games, such as the  Legend of Zelda,  Pokemon, and Mario. This is a multinational video game company in Japan founded in 1889. These two are getting married for $ 69 billion as Microsoft seems to brew up more controversy this year. 

This deal was announced in December but has only been detailed recently. Microsoft has decided to merge both Call of Duty (CoD) and Nintendo by adding the military-based game to Nintendo’s video game list.  It will be made available to players on the same day as Xbox with content parity and full features under a 10-year agreement between the two platforms, says Brad Smith. Microsoft will be arguing the case with the EU regulators to permit the $69 billion acquisition. 

Nintendo's deal has been looked at as Microsoft's attempt to put pressure on Sony to accept a similar deal says Tom Warren. According to Reuters, Sony has emerged as one of the biggest opponents of Microsoft's acquisition, citing that it comes out as a risk to reducing competition by having franchises such as CoD locked to Microsoft services like Game Pass and Xbox consoles. Apparently, Smith has indicated that a similar 10-year deal is available if Sony also wants to sign. 

The news of the deal has coincided with Microsoft's preparation to plead a case with EU regulators in a closed hearing. This will only be attended by Microsoft representatives, including Xbox head Phil Spencer and Brad Smith. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick and Jim Ryan from Sony will also be expected to attend. The hearing is also bound to draw in watchdogs such as Nvidia,  Google,  the European games developer Federation,  Electronic Arts, and Valve. 

The EU has issued an anti-trust warning to Microsoft over the deal. The EU's concerns were that the agreement impacts the video game market's fair competition concept.  In response to that, David Cuddy, Microsoft spokesperson, said the company is committed to finding a path forward as well as a solution and would definitely be taking careful consideration of the European commission's concerns. 

Besides the European Union,  Microsoft's Activision acquisition has also faced opposition from US and UK regulators such as the US federal trade commission and the UK competition and markets authority. The UK competition and markets authorities said the deal could increase prices while creating fewer choices and less innovation for UK  gamers. 

Microsoft cited that this deal is only to bring the CoD games to Nintendo players considering the last Cod release for Nintendo players was in 2013.

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