Microsoft tells US FTC it doesn’t know when Call of Duty was released, why franchise is special: report

Microsoft announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard a year ago, sparking concerns that the company could prevent Call of Duty, the video game company’s iconic franchise, from appearing on Sony’s PlayStation. According to a report, an American technology news website, last year in January Microsoft announced that it would spend $68.7 billion to acquire Activision Blizzard, highlighting how it would get Call of Duty, Warcraft and Candy. Crush for these fees.

However, The Verge reports that Microsoft lawyers are suddenly claiming they have no idea why Call of Duty is special or even when it came out.

Microsoft’s 37-page response to the US Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) lawsuit to block the Activision Blizzard deal includes the following passage:

“Microsoft asserts that it lacks sufficient knowledge or information to form an opinion as to the veracity of the claims regarding industry perceptions of Call of Duty and the original Call of Duty release date; or the veracity of claims regarding the Call of Duty launch and typical release schedule and the resources and budget Activision allocates to Call of Duty, including the number of studios working on Call of Duty.”

In its complaint, the FTC argued that the acquisition of Activision Blizzard “would allow Microsoft to remove competitors from its Xbox game consoles and its rapidly growing subscription content and cloud gaming business.”

Many people have been concerned about the future of Call of Duty, to the point that Xbox CEO Phil Spencer has publicly assured the public that the franchise will be available on PlayStation as long as PlayStations are in production.

In its response to the FTC, Microsoft cited its promise to expand, not limit, the availability of Activision’s flagship series by bringing it to the Nintendo Switch.

According to The Verge, Nintendo and Microsoft agreed to keep Call of Duty on Nintendo platforms for 10 years after the acquisition, and also offered Sony a 10-year deal, after Sony previously pushed back a three-year extension. years. Sony has not publicly responded to the 10-year offer. *