Microsoft Caught in a Lie? – Report Says They Offered Sony Just 10 Years of COD!

While certainly creating a lot of shock when it was announced earlier this year, the future of Microsoft’s successful takeover of Activision/Blizzard has, over the last 2 months, only seemed to look more and more doubtful. – A key factor in this is the fact that the EU’s anti-competition regulator is seemingly taking an increasingly dim view of Microsoft and its comments on the matter. Specifically, they feel that the tech giant is being more than a little coy when it comes to transparency on what effect this deal could potentially have on Activision/Blizzard titles continuing to come to competing consoles.

And, in fairness, the EU had a very valid point. For nearly 6 months after the initial announcement of the $68.7BN takeover was made, Microsoft had said practically nothing in regards to what future certain gaming titles might have on the Sony PlayStation. And particularly so Call of Duty. – Early last month, however, Xbox chief Phil Spencer finally went on record to say that (paraphrasing somewhat) ‘as long as there’s a PlayStation, it’ll get Call of Duty)’.

Following a new report via GameReactor, however, it seems that Microsoft may have just been caught in a lie as it has been revealed that on November 11th (over a month after these comments were made), the only offer that has been made to Sony so far is a 10-year deal to keep COD on the PlayStation.

Microsoft Caught in a Lie?

According to the report although Sony did confirm receipt of the offer they have so far decided to not respond to it either positively or negatively. They’re not exactly ignoring it, but I daresay that it has been passed along to their lobbying lawyers to show the EU that, despite what Microsoft might declare publically, they are still being incredibly vague (and now apparently contradictory) about what future Activision/Blizzard titles will have on the PlayStation should the takeover deal go ahead.

And this again seems to cement the point we made earlier. The EU is already unhappy with Microsoft seemingly wanting to blur the lines about what effect this takeover could have in terms of anti-competition laws. With this on top of it though, if I was going to gamble money on it, I’d bet on the deal not going ahead!

What Happens Now?

At this point, it’s hard to ignore the conclusion that Microsoft wants to make, at the very least, Call of Duty an Xbox exclusive. Or, at the very least, try and gouge PlayStation for as much money as it can to keep the game on Sony’s platform. This is, of course, presuming that the deal goes ahead.

Make no bones about it though, presuming that this November 11th offer is legitimate, then it has outright caught Microsoft (or at least Xbox chief Phil Spencer) in a lie. Well, not unless they truly believe that the PlayStation brand only has 10 years’ worth of life left in it (which would make their prior comments on the matter legitimate).

Of course, no confirmation is going to come on the deal for at least another 6-12 months. I do, however, suspect that as I write this, the EU is currently erring towards not approving it. And should that happen, well, it might result in the deal just imploding. Something which, based on Microsoft’s very shady comments on the matter so far, probably wouldn’t see many tears shed from the gaming community.

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!