The ongoing case between the US FTC and Microsoft has ended up revealing tons of confidential information already. It’s public knowledge now that the Xbox maker wants to acquire Call of Duty publisher Activision for $68.7 billion. The current case, however, has unleashed some interesting details that not many were aware of previously.

Some of the details, shared during the first day of the FTC v. Microsoft hearing, are astonishing, to say the least. Notably, the ones related to the Call of Duty publisher itself.

Activision forced Microsoft to introduce a new Call of Duty revenue deal, reveals Xbox’s Sarah Bond

For the uninitiated, the case is regarding the future of Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. This is the reason the company is going against the Federal Trade Commission. The latter wants a preliminary injunction granted to prevent the deal’s closure before another legal challenge which is due to begin in the first week of August.

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Day one saw numerous witnesses giving testimony on various topics revolving around the deal. Xbox’s Head of Creator Experience Sarah Bond was also among the people who took to the witness stand to answer critical questions. Well, one of them was also connected to Call of Duty and the deal between Microsoft and Activision regarding the same.

READ MORE: Microsoft Makes It Clear. No Call of Duty, No Activision Deal!

Sarah Bond revealed that Microsoft had to agree to a new revenue share deal (80/20 instead of the usual 70/30) with Activision to eventually bring Call of Duty to the latest Xbox consoles. The reason behind this revision was that Activision wasn’t ready to prepare a dev kit for its IP on Xbox without a bigger deal. Moreover, the publisher even hinted that it had a different revenue share with PlayStation.

“It was clear that Call of Duty would be on PS5 and that would not have been good if it was not also on Xbox if it was launching at the same time,” said Bond.

Furthermore, Activision even asked Microsoft to bid on the marketing deals for CoD. But the Xbox maker declined. It implied that it couldn’t show the action franchise in its own presentations, such as the Xbox Showcase.

What are your predictions on the current hearing? Do you think the Xbox maker will eventually win against the FTC? Let us know in the comments.

Source: The Verge

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