Could Call of Duty Doom the $68.7 Billion Deal Between Activision and Microsoft?

Microsoft stunned the gaming industry earlier this year when it announced the proposed acquisition of Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard. It’s been months since the news was first revealed, but the current situation has turned out to be quite interesting. Going by a lot of factors playing their role, the future of the acquisition is hanging in the middle.

The biggest reason the deal hasn’t gained favorable momentum yet is Call of Duty. Yes, the billion-dollar franchise is the main factor due to which Microsoft is finding it tough to move further with the proposed acquisition of Activision. How? Well, there are certain key reasons to consider related to the iconic series.

Call of Duty may end up making the Xbox-Activision deal fall apart

Following the massive announcement made in January 2022, it was up to the regulatory bodies of different nations to make their decisions of approving the deal. Until October, everything seemed to be going smoothly. Several major regulatory authorities did express their approval for the Xbox-Activision merger, but when it came to the EU, the entire scenario changed in just a month.

READ MORE: Xbox Officially Reveals Why the Deal With Call of Duty Publisher Activision Benefits Everyone

Sony has played a major role in making sure that the proposed acquisition doesn’t take place. The PlayStation maker believes that upon the completion of the deal, a franchise like Call of Duty will become Xbox exclusive and will be removed from its consoles. That’s the main concern PlayStation’s boss Jim Ryan has also tried to emphasize on.

Just recently, the European Commission revealed that it will now begin an in-depth investigation of the $68.7 billion deal. Moreover, the reason for the decision made by the EU Commission is Call of Duty, to a larger extent.

CoD will either make the deal or break it

According to the Commission, if Microsoft acquires Activision, the competition in the market will be reduced. Because Call of Duty may get restricted to Xbox only if it is pulled from the PlayStation consoles. Yes, Microsoft has tried to assure Sony constantly, regarding their concerns, but it looks like the PS maker is not interested in any kind of promises.

Simply put, PlayStation doesn’t want Call of Duty to go away in any case whatsoever. That’s the reason it has been pushing efforts continuously to stop the merger from becoming successful. After what the EU Commission has announced, the deal still is now in great danger.

Speaking more precisely, then it might become doomed as well if the acquisition fails due to the video game franchise. After all, CoD has been making a lot of profit for Sony, especially in 2022, where Modern Warfare II has become the fastest entry in the history of the series to cross $1 billion in just 10 days. Plus, most of the sales for the latest game have been on PlayStation devices.

It will be interesting to see the stance of the EU Commission after its in-depth investigation is done.

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