What You Missed This Week in Video Games

Microsoft commits to 10-years of "Call of Duty" for Nintendo, Steam

"Game On" is The Fly’s weekly recap of the stories powering up or beating down video game stocks. 

NEW RELEASES: This week’s major release is Square Enix’s (SQNXF) "Dragon Quest Treasures," a spinoff of "Dragon Quest XI" releasing exclusivey for the Nintendo Switch (NTDOY) on December 9.

MICROSOFT/ACTIVISION: As Microsoft (MSFT) continues to seek various approvals for its proposed $69B takeover of Activision Blizzard (ATVI), Bloomberg reported late last week that the the Xbox maker is prepared to fight for the deal if the U.S. Federal Trade Commission files a lawsuit seeking to block the transaction. Microsoft has not yet had talks with the FTC about remedies or concessions meant to get the deal approved. The FTC is wrapping up its probe into the deal and is anticipated to make a recommendation soon, the report said at the time.

Meanwhile, the New York Post’s Josh Kosman reported earlier this week that Microsoft president Brad Smith intends to meet with the FTC’s three Democratic members on Wednesday in an attempt to keep the tech giant’s proposed takeover of Activision Blizzard from being scrapped over antitrust concerns. Smith and a group of attorneys are set to meet individually with FTC chair Lina Khan, who allegedly is skeptical of the deal, as well as Democratic commissioners Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya, Kosman said, citing sources close to the situation. The report follows the New York Post saying over the weekend that at least on Democrat on the four-member panel has recently taken a sympathetic view of the merger.

More recently, however, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said via Twitter that the company has entered into a 10-year commitment to bring "Call of Duty" to Nintendo following the merger of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard. "Microsoft is committed to helping bring more games to more people – however they choose to play," Spencer said. He added that Microsoft has committed to continue to offer Call of Duty on PC gaming platform Steam simultaneously to Xbox after the deal closes. A Nintendo platform has not received a new "Call of Duty" release since "Call of Duty: Ghosts" for the Wii U in 2013. The Fly notes that Microsoft has reportedly made similar 10-year commitments to Sony (SONY) to have "Call of Duty" remain on PlayStation, though Sony and Microsoft have continued to spar over the potential new ownership of the "Call of Duty" brand.

UNIONIZATION: Unionization efforts have emerged in a variety of sectors across the U.S., and the video game space is no exception. Workers at Activision Blizzard’s Albany, New York site won a vote to unionize, making them the game maker’s second union and third overall union in the U.S. video game space, The Verge’s Ash Parrish reported on Friday. The vote for the union, which was organized as GWA Albany under the Communications Workers of America, was a majority decision, marking a significant step in Blizzard Albany’s unionization process that started this past summer, the author noted. "With this victory, we’re advocating for ourselves and each other because we care deeply about our work and the games we make," said Amanda Deep, associate test analyst at Blizzard Albany. "Our colleagues at Raven inspired us when they announced the formation of the Game Workers Alliance / CWA. We can only hope that our win will continue to grow the labor movement at other video game studios across the country." The Fly notes that workers at Raven Software, another support studio at Activision Blizzard, won a union election earlier this year.

Meanwhile, Axios’ Stephen Totilo reported that nearly 300 quality assurance staff at video game developers owned by Microsoft have taken steps toward establishing a union. The QA workers, who work on development teams in the ZeniMax group consisting of Bethesda, Id, Arkane, and others, can indicate their preference about whether to form a union through signed cards or an electronic portal, the author said, noting that a successful union vote would be the biggest effort to unionize yet in the game industry. Microsoft intends to voluntarily recognize the union if the majority of the employees say they want it, the author noted, citing a rep for Communications Workers of America, which represents such workers.

OTHER STORIES TO WATCH:

• Microsoft intends to increase prices of its first-party titles, including the upcoming "Forza Motorsport" and "Starfield," to $70 from $60 [more]
• U.K. video game sales fell 7.3% year-over-year in November, Gamesindustry.biz reports [more]
• Activision Blizzard was added to Wedbush’s Best Ideas List [more]
• "Pokemon Scarlet/Violet" remained the highest selling game in Japan last week, according to Famitsu [more]
• Capcom’s (CCOEY) "Monster Hunter Rise," which first launched exclusively for Switch in 2021, is coming out for Xbox and PlayStation consoles in January 2023 [more]
• GameStop (GME) has begun a new round of layoffs, Axios reports [more]

Keywords: video games, game on, activision blizzard, xbox, playstation, ftc, unions, Call of Duty