Microsoft is currently defending its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard against the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) which is seeking a temporary ban on the deal. On the penultimate day of the hearing, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was questioned about it.
Nadella, who is the most powerful figure and also a non-gaming tech executive during the hearing, echoed what other executives, including Xbox head Phil Spencer, Microsoft president Brad Smith, and Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said.
Nadella said that making Activision games exclusive would make “no strategic sense.” “It makes no economic sense or no strategic sense. Our goal with Activision in particular, in their content and our content, is to get it on more platforms. That\u2019s what we\u2019ve done with Office and that\u2019s what I want to do with gaming,” he said.
When asked whether he commits to continue delivering Call of Duty on PlayStation, Nadella responded, “100 per cent.”
Nadella targets Sony for exclusives<\/span>
When Nadella was asked about Xbox exclusives, he said Sony has defined the market competition with exclusivity.
“If it was up to me I would love to get rid of the entire exclusives on consoles, but that\u2019s not for me to define especially as a low share player in the console market,” the top executive said.
“The dominant player there [Sony] has defined market competition using exclusives, so that\u2019s the world we live in. I have no love for that world,” he added.
In February this year, Smith said that Sony has 286 PlayStation exclusive games as compared to 59 that Microsoft has on Xbox. <\/p>\n“I grew up in a company that always believed that software should run on as many platforms as possible,” Nadella highlighted.
Call of Duty exclusivity wasn\u2019t part of the deal<\/span>
Day 4 of the hearing also witnessed Microsoft CFO Amy Hood’s testimony in which she said Call of Duty exclusivity wasn\u2019t discussed behind the Activision Blizzard acquisition.
“The possibility of making Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox was never assessed or discussed with me, nor was it even mentioned in any of the presentations to or discussions with the Board of Directors. I understood the necessity of keeping Call of Duty on other platforms. The Acquisition\u2019s strategic rationale and financial valuation are both aligned toward making Activision games more widely available, not less,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n