Microsoft calls out majority global console market share of Sony

Tuesday's hearing allowed Microsoft to answer the statement of objection that the EU Commission recently sent to the tech giant. The charge sheet warned about the possible anti-competitive effects of the deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard.

The Verge's Tom Warren also reported that Brad Smith said that Sony "can spend all of its energy trying to block this deal... or it can sit down with us and hammer out an agreement that addresses what it says it's concerned about, mainly the access to Call of Duty in the future.

He adds that Microsoft inked two deals with Nvidia and Nintendo in a bid to convince regulators.

Microsoft thinks its two deals, with Nvidia and Nintendo, will be enough to convince regulators," Warren tweeted. "Smith on the CMA: "Do you want to kill a deal and cement Sony's position? Or do you want to open this [Call of Duty] up to 150 million more people?"

Microsoft announced a legally binding 10-year agreement with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty to the console. According to Smith, the agreement will bring Call of Duty to Nintendo players on the same day as Xbox and with full feature and content parity.

It will be interesting to see how Microsoft intends to pull this off given Switch's age, struggling to run native games such as Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. It will be hard to imagine that Activision can develop a game that runs well on PC, consoles, and handheld. Most likely, the deal will be delayed to a later date once Microsoft closes the Activision Blizzard deal or when Nintendo comes out with its next console, preferably both.

At the same time, Microsoft finalized a 10-year partnership with Nvidia to bring Xbox games to GeForce Now if the deal is approved.

Ironically, Nvidia was among those with Google that voiced its concern over the merger.

Microsoft also gave an update on the deal it offered Sony for the Call of Duty franchise. "We haven't agreed a deal with Sony, but I hope we will," Smith said.