Valve says long-term Call of Duty Steam offer not needed as ‘Xbox always follows through on its promises’
Valve co-founder and CEO Gabe Newell has offered Microsoft a timely show of support as the Xbox maker bids to convince anti-trust regulators to approve its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
The European Commission and the UK’s CMA recently launched in-depth probes into the $68.7 billion deal, while Microsoft executives are set to meet US FTC chair Lina Khan and other commissioners on Wednesday in order to make their case for why the transaction shouldn’t be blocked over competition concerns.
The future of the Call of Duty series as a multiplatform product is one of the key areas being examined by anti-trust regulators scrutinising the planned acquisition.
In a bid to address some concerns, earlier this week Microsoft said it had offered Sony a 10-year, legally enforceable contract to make each new Call of Duty game available on PlayStation the same day it comes to Xbox.
On Wednesday it said it had entered into a similar deal with Nintendo and also offered one to Valve, the owner of leading PC digital game distribution platform Steam.
The latest Call of Duty game, Modern Warfare 2, is the first new series entry to be released on Steam since 2017’s Call of Duty: WWII.
Responding to Microsoft’s Steam offer, Valve confirmed it had received a draft agreement for a “long-term” Call of Duty deal, but that it was unnecessary for several reasons.
“We’re happy that Microsoft wants to continue using Steam to reach customers with Call of Duty when their Activision acquisition closes,” Valve boss Newell wrote in a statement provided to Kotaku.
“Microsoft has been on Steam for a long time and we take it as a signal that they are happy with gamers reception to that and the work we are doing. Our job is to keep building valuable
Read more on videogameschronicle.com
