As part of Microsoft’s ongoing efforts to appease both Sony and governmental regulatory bodies like the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the company has reportedly offered Sony a deal that includes the rights to put Call of Duty on the PlayStation Plus subscription service.
According to a report by Leah Nylen and Dina Bass of Bloomberg News, the proposal made by Microsoft to Sony includes the right to host CoD titles on the PS Plus service, a “catalog game subscription” competitor to Microsoft’s expansive Game Pass.
Sony has reportedly not accepted the offer made by Microsoft, and neither side commented to provide specific terms on the offer.
Additionally, Bass reported that this offer had already been proposed to Sony before the FTC announced its lawsuit to block the mega gaming deal.
On Dec. 8, the FTC officially filed a lawsuit to block Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of game publisher Activision Blizzard, saying the deal “would enable Microsoft to suppress competitors to its Xbox gaming consoles and its rapidly growing subscription content and cloud-gaming business.”
The FTC also said Microsoft “would have both the means and motive to harm competition” if it had control over well-entrenched and popular Activision franchises like CoD, Overwatch, Warcraft, and others. Microsoft has to overcome hurdles from other international regulatory bodies to get the deal approved, too.
PS Plus currently does not feature any CoD titles on the PS Plus catalog, nor does the Xbox Game Pass service.
Microsoft committed to bringing CoD to Switch and keeping it on Steam last week, but Valve founder Gabe Newell commented that the Steam commitment wasn’t necessary.
