Microsoft wants the acquisition of Activision Blizzard to cost almost 70 billion dollars. The group wants to dispel the concerns of the competition watchdogs with the resulting advantages for gamers.
In the dispute over the multi-billion takeover of game manufacturer Activision Blizzard, Microsoft has announced agreements with competitors. This is intended to curb concerns from competition watchdogs.
Should Activision Blizzard be taken over, classic games such as the shooter “Call of Duty” would also be available on the Geforce Now streaming service in the future, Microsoft manager Brad Smith announced on Tuesday evening in Brussels.
It was already known in the morning that Microsoft also wants to make the game available to Nintendo Switch users. In comparison to the Xbox from Microsoft and the Playstation from Sony, however, this has a significantly lower performance.
Smith said on Tuesday that “Call of Duty” is now available on around 150 million additional devices. The agreements are initially valid for ten years. According to official information, the gaming service Geforce Now from chip manufacturer Nvidia, which specializes in graphics cards, has around 25 million members in more than 100 countries.
Microsoft wants to buy the Blizzard games group for 68.7 billion dollars (currently around 64.5 billion euros). In addition to “Call of Duty”, Activision Blizzard also includes titles such as “Overwatch”, “World of Warcraft”, “Starcraft” and “Hearthstone”. Competition watchdogs have reservations about the takeover, fearing that users’ access to games could be restricted.
