Gabe Newell says he trusts Microsoft to keep Call of Duty on Steam

Valve Software's co-founder Gabe Newell has said he trusts Microsoft to keep its word and keep releasing future Call of Duty games on Steam, the company's digital distribution platform.

Earlier this week, the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) moved court against Microsoft to stop the $68.7 billion Activision Blizzard deal from going ahead.

Activision Blizzard owns the Call of Duty franchise and it is one of the most lucrative IPs in gaming. The recent release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 saw sales exceed $1 billion in just 10 days from launch.

The FTC cited Microsoft's acquisition of Zenimax, the parent company of Bethesda Game Studios whose next big game Starfield will be exclusive to Xbox hardware.

Redfall, made by Arkane Studios, which is part of the Zenimax Media family, will also be exclusive to Microsoft. The FTC said that Microsoft chose to make these titles exclusive despite giving European antitrust authorities assurance it won't do so.

The FTC said that these two examples were proof enough that Microsoft was prepared to withhold important titles from the competition.

Sony still doesn't seem to trust Microsoft to keep its end of the bargain and let Call of Duty remain on PlayStation consoles.

Microsoft has already signed a 10-year deal with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty to its consoles but Sony apparently turned down the offer.

The Redmond-based technology giant also offered the same 10-year deal to Valve Software to keep Call of Duty games on Steam.

"Microsoft offered and even sent us a draft agreement for a long-term Call of Duty commitment but it wasn’t necessary for us," Newell said, in a statement issued to Kotaku.

Newell said he wasn't a firm believer "in requiring any partner to have an agreement that locks them to shipping games on Steam into the distant future".

He said that he trusts Phil Spencer, Xbox head at Microsoft, to keep his promise and let Call of Duty stay on Steam.

"Phil and the games team at Microsoft have always followed through on what they told us they would do so we trust their intentions," Newell said in the statement.

Newell said Microsoft had all the motivation "they need to be on the platforms and devices where Call of Duty customers want to be".

Steam is one of the largest digital game distribution platforms on PC, with over 120 million monthly active users and a catalogue of more than 50,000 games.