New Delhi:- Bobby Kotick, CEO of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard, went to a federal judge on Wednesday to approve Microsoft's $69 billion takeover of the company. I appealed, Kotik said the attempt to make the Call of Duty platform proprietary, as Microsoft critics say, will anger the roughly 100 million people who play the game each month.
"There will be an uprising if the game is removed from the platform," Kotik said. He said removing Call of Duty from PlayStations manufactured by the Sony Group would be "extremely damaging" to Activision's business.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has asked its internal judge to temporarily suspend the Microsoft acquisition so that it can rule on the matter. In the past, internal litigation was often dismissed by the losing party in federal court.
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Much of the testimony at the trial focused on Activision's Call of Duty, one of his best-selling video games of all time. It's currently available for smartphones, multiple consoles, and desktop computers. Kotik said he considered making Call of Duty available on the Nintendo Switch but decided against it because he didn't think the console would sell well. "I made the wrong decision," he said.
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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is scheduled to testify before Judge Jacqueline Scott Corey in federal court Wednesday afternoon. The FTC, which enforces antitrust laws, has taken a tougher stance on mergers under the Biden administration. The deal would give Xbox console maker Microsoft exclusive access to Activision games, putting Nintendo and the Sony Group in a tough spot, officials said.
To address antitrust concerns, Microsoft has offered to license Call of Duty to a competitor. There are also arguments that it would be more economically advantageous to license the game to everyone. The agreement has been approved in many jurisdictions but has been rejected by the FTC in the US and the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK.
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Both the tech giants Microsoft and Activision Blizzard are arguing on the game Call of Duty to make it available on a single platform removing it from the Playstation but it could affect the business and the Federal Trade Commission is stuck on the Biden administration.