Microsoft says it offered FTC consent decree on Call of Duty

Microsoft President Brad Smith said the software giant told the U.S. Federal Trade Commission that it would sign a legally binding agreement guaranteeing it would provide Call of Duty to gaming rivals including Sony as part of its $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard. 

The company, seeking regulatory approval for the deal, said it made the offer before meetings last week with FTC commissioners and before the agency voted to sue to block the deal. 

“The thing that probably disappoints me is not that we will have to present this case to a judge in a court because this is a case in which I have great confidence,” Smith said. “I’m disappointed that the FTC didn’t give us the opportunity to even sit down with the staff to even talk about our proposal to even see if there was a solution there.”

The FTC has said it’s concerned the Activision deal would “enable Microsoft to suppress competitors to its Xbox gaming consoles and its rapidly growing subscription content and cloud-gaming business.” 

Smith said the FTC is solely focused on Sony, whose PlayStation console outsells Microsoft’s Xbox. 

“The FTC’s case is really based on a market that they’ve identified that they say has two companies and two products, Sony PlayStation, and Microsoft Xbox,” he said. “If you look at the global market, Sony has 70% of that market, and we have 30%. So the first thing a judge is going to have to decide is whether the FTC lawsuit is a case that will promote competition or is it really instead of case that will protect the largest competitor from competition.”

A spokesperson for the FTC didn’t have an immediate comment.

Smith said PlayStation has 286 exclusive games compared with Xbox’s 59, “so the administrative law judge is going to have to decide whether going from 59 to 60 is such a danger to competition, that he should stop this from moving forward.”

Microsoft’s proposal to make Call of Duty available on PlayStation includes offering the blockbuster franchise on its subscription service, too, Bloomberg has reported. 

Smith made the comments at Microsoft’s annual shareholder meeting on Tuesday.