Valve Boss Gabe Newell Weighs in on Activision Blizzard Buyout

Credit:/Activision Blizzard/Valve

Microsoft’s Head of Xbox Phil Spencer made an interesting comment publicly that might exacerbate the situation with Sony, who is opposing Microsoft’s proposed $69B USD acquisition of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard. In a recent episode of the Second Request podcast, Spencer said the following: “Sony is leading the dialogue around why the deal shouldn’t go through to protect its dominant position on console, so the thing they grab onto is Call of Duty. The largest console maker in the world raising an objection about the one franchise that we’ve said will continue to ship on the platform.”

Meanwhile, Valve Software boss Gabe Newell says that he trusts the word of Spencer that Call of Duty and other Activision Blizzard titles will continue to be available on its PC gaming platform Steam. In a statement to Kotaku, Newell said that even though the company sent him a draft agreement of a 10 year Call of Duty commitment on Steam, it was unnecessary:

“Microsoft offered and even sent us a draft agreement for a long-term Call of Duty commitment but it wasn’t necessary for us because a) we’re not believers in requiring any partner to have an agreement that locks them to shipping games on Steam into the distant future b) Phil and the games team at Microsoft have always followed through on what they told us they would do so we trust their intentions and c) we think Microsoft has all the motivation they need to be on the platforms and devices where Call of Duty customers want to be.”

On Dec, 6, Microsoft’s Head of Xbox Phil Spencer announced on social media that Microsoft had come to an agreement with Nintendo to continue offering Call of Duty on the company’s platforms for 10 years. In addition, Spencer revealed that a similar deal had been reached with Valve Software’s Steam platform. Microsoft offered a similar deal to Sony publicly as a way to calm the waters and moved towards finding solutions to get the acquisition approved. Shortly thereafter the FTC filed a lawsuit to block the proposed buyout.