Since the announcement of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, many have been wondering if Call of Duty will become a first-party exclusive for Xbox.
In a Gamesindustry.biz interview (thanks, GamesRadar), DFC Intelligence founder David Cole claims that making Call of Duty an Xbox exclusive may get Microsoft flagged by antitrust regulators.
“It should also be noted that on the console side Call of Duty is really the only big franchise from Activision,” Cole said. “The big issue is if [Call of Duty] becomes a Microsoft exclusive. Right now, I don’t think [it will]. For one thing, it would be hard to get it past regulators if they want to lock the competition out.”
Xbox head Phil Spencer claims that PlayStation may still receive “some” Activision Blizzard games, though it’s anybody’s guess what titles he’s referring to. After the acquisition announcement went live, Sony saw its shares fall by $20 billion.
On Tuesday, DFC Intelligence’s Twitter echoed a similar to Cole’s during the interview.
“Regulators will take a close look and franchises like [Call of Duty] may not be exclusive to Xbox platforms because of antitrust concerns,” DFC Intelligence said on Twitter.
Will this deal go through? Regulators will take a close look and franchises like #CallofDuty may not be exclusive to #Xbox platforms because of antitrust concerns. This deal will get a lot of scrutiny and like the #nvidia attempt to acquire Arm
— DFC Intelligence (@dfcintelligence) January 18, 2022
It’s really anybody’s guess right now if Microsoft might be in store for antitrust issues if it tries to make something like Call of Duty exclusive.
Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.
