Array
Hunting down your enemies on the bustling streets of Amsterdam, along the U.S.-Mexico border or in a Middle Eastern fishing village is just part of the intense action in the latest Call of Duty video game.
The Friday release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 continues a nearly two-decade run for California-based Activision Blizzard’s wildly popular military shooting game franchise. New installments of the game can rival Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters in how much they earn on their opening weekend.
But the battle this time is also happening off-screen. Call of Duty is at the center of a corporate tug-of-war between Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation over Microsoft’s pending $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard.
“Microsoft would have full ownership of one of the most valuable franchises in console gaming,” said Joost van Dreunen, a lecturer on the business of games at New York University’s Stern School of Business. “And naturally, Sony does not want that or like that because it will cost them business.”
Microsoft has been working to get approval from antitrust regulators in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere to complete its January agreement to acquire the video game giant. But it’s been trailed around the world by objections from Sony, which is afraid of losing access to what it describes as a “must-have” game title.
Among those listening to Sony’s concerns are antitrust regulators in the United Kingdom who last month escalated their investigation into whether Microsoft could make Call of Duty and other titles exclusive to its Xbox platform or “otherwise degrade its rivals’ access” by delaying releases or imposing licensing price increases.
“These titles require thousands of game developers and several years to complete, and there are very few other games of similar calibre or popularity,” said a September report from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority.
