As a last resort bid to win over Sony and the various competition committees involved with the ongoing Xbox and Activision purchase, Microsoft has now offered Sony rights to purchase Call of Duty for its PlayStation Plus subscription.
The contract, which hasn’t been signed by Sony yet, would allow the PlayStation brand to pay Microsoft a set amount of money in order to offer Call of Duty games on the service across its various tiers.
Bloomberg reports that Microsoft will open up the Call of Duty franchise for long-term rental and purchase options. This would grant Sony permission to purchase the games and include them on its own game library service.
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Of course, details are scarce still on what exactly this agreement would hold. If Sony were to agree, it would mean PlayStation Plus subscribers would be able to enjoy Call of Duty games while subscribed to either PlayStation Plus Essentials, Extra or Deluxe. There would be no additional fees involved.
We don’t know what limitations would be in place for this sort of deal. It would not make sense for Microsoft to release a new Call of Duty game on the service on launch day. Rather, the deal might offer Sony the option to include earlier entries in the series.
The contract adds to the many dozen attempts Microsoft has made in order to get this Activision purchase cleared. The company has been fighting through regulators for over a year now. Last week, the FTC announced it would go forward with its lawsuit against Microsoft and the Activision acquisition as the regulator sees the purchase as unlawful.
The Xbox group hopes to get this sale completed and signed by June 2023. However, these various delays might cause that date to get pushed up further. If anything, Microsoft hasn’t even entered the final stretch of this race by the look of things.
Source: Bloomberg
