FTC wants to know more about the Call of Duty licensing deal with Nintendo

In a report by TweakTown, the US competition regulator has reportedly issued a subpoena to Nintendo of America's vice president of publisher and developer relations Steve Singer. The FTC learned that Singer negotiated the deal between Nintendo and Microsoft.

The FTC apparently wants Singer to give a testimony about the licensing deal. The exec may be called to deliver a 7-hour-long testimony to the FTC's Complaints Counsel.

The US antitrust regulator reportedly inquired about the identity of the Nintendo executive that negotiated the deal on March 16. Lawyers for Nintendo of America alleged that the FTC did not issue a subpoena until it learned that Singer was the Nintendo executive present at the negotiations. According to Nintendo's legal counsel, the FTC's identity request and subpoena were issued well passed the case's subpoena deadline of March 3.

It is unclear at this point what information the FTC is seeking. It may want to clarify why Nintendo accepted the deal and why Sony has not. The antitrust regulator may also want more specific information about the terms of the licensing deal.

In response, Nintendo has asked the FTC judge to dismiss the subpoena on the Microsoft and Activision Blizzard merger. The company has submitted a motion to quash the FTC's "untimely" subpoena. Lawyers for Nintendo argue that the request was submitted too late.

"Complaint Counsel purportedly served the Singer Subpoena on March 29 or 30, 2023. Therefore, the Singer Subpoena is untimely, and should be quashed," Nintendo of America's lawyer Leonard Gordon wrote.

The motion to quash is still being reviewed by the FTC's Chief Administrative Law Judge D. Michael Chappell. No decision has been made on the motion as of writing.