In a recent post-trial filing following its court victory against the Federal Trade Commission, Microsoft has expressed its belief that Call of Duty should have never been removed from Steam. The popular FPS franchise ventured away from Steam in 2018 with Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, only to return in 2022 with the release of the highly successful Modern Warfare 2. This prompted Activision Blizzard to also release older franchise entries on Steam.
After a series of legal disputes involving Microsoft, Sony, and the FTC in the United States, the judge ruled in favor of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, bringing the deal closer to completion. With the odds now in its favor, Microsoft has filed new documents discussing key events leading up to the acquisition attempt.
One of the noteworthy filings addresses Activision’s decision to make Call of Duty a Battle.net exclusive, aiming to boost the platform’s growth. According to Microsoft, this strategy was a “resounding failure,” as leaving Steam did not result in substantial user base growth for Battle.net. In contrast, Steam experienced significant growth during the same period, nearly doubling its user count from 67 million in 2017 to 132 million in 2021. Microsoft concludes that Activision failed to capitalize on the exclusivity of Call of Duty.
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These filings were submitted in response to the FTC’s appeal of the court decision in the Activision Blizzard acquisition trial. Microsoft argues that Call of Duty alone cannot single-handedly uplift an entire gaming platform. Even without access to Call of Duty, as was the case with Steam from 2018 to 2022, a platform can still achieve considerable success. In other words, if Microsoft were to make Call of Duty an Xbox exclusive, it would not spell the end for PlayStation.
However, Microsoft states that this hypothetical situation would never occur. The head of Xbox has assured that Call of Duty will remain on PlayStation for the foreseeable future. Nevertheless, Microsoft continues to build a strong argument, given the scrutiny from the FTC. While the recent court ruling favored Microsoft, future developments remain uncertain.
Additionally, Microsoft is still grappling with the regulatory authority in the UK. The CMA has rejected Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and although the company has appealed the decision, the next steps for its UK business deals are unclear.
We would love to hear your thoughts on this matter. Do you agree with Microsoft’s criticism of Activision’s decision to remove Call of Duty from Steam? Let us know in the comments below!