Call of Duty fans can breathe a sigh of relief after this news – the franchise will continue to appear on the Sony PlayStation under Microsoft. And that’s for the long term.
After the purchase of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, the future of Call of Duty for the PlayStation was on the line – now Microsoft has spoken out about it again in a blog post – and makes a promise..
Microsoft = Activision Blizzard = Call of Duty
No sooner had the ink dried on the contracts for the billion-dollar deal than the first questions began to arise in the Call of Duty community. What’s next for the popular franchise on PlayStation? Now Microsoft’s Vice Chairman Brad Smith has spoken out about the future of CoD and PlayStation in the official (Microsoft Blog). In it, he confirms that Call of Duty will continue beyond the already contractually agreed period with Sony.
New Microsoft statement on app stores and Call of Duty on PlayStationhttps://t.co/VBbmscIJ6i pic.twitter.com/tXwWto0HNg
– Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) February 9, 2022
Logical Decision
With nearly 120 million PlayStation 4 and about 17 million PlayStation 5 sold, Sony has a massive market share. Even though this makes the company the biggest competitor for Microsoft on the console market, the company would forego a lot of money if they were to market Call of Duty as an XBox exclusive in the future. Insider Tom Henderson has already expressed this assumption on Twitter:
I don’t think Call of Duty will go Xbox exclusive BTW.
The series makes too much money on PlayStation to just alienate such a big community (remember that Microsoft now OWNS Call of Duty).
Some form of DLC exclusivity? Sure… But not a console exclusive.
– Tom Henderson (@_Tom_Henderson_) January 18, 2022
Good omens already in January
A few days later, XBox boss Phil Spencer spoke out via tweet, calling Sony an important part of the industry and clarifying that existing agreements between Activision Blizzard and Sony will be upheld.
PlayStation owners can therefore breathe a sigh of relief and continue to look forward to CoD games in the future. However, it remains to be seen whether these will be released annually, as has been the case up to now.
Had good calls this week with leaders at Sony. I confirmed our intent to honour all existing agreements upon acquisition of Activision Blizzard and our desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation. Sony is an important part of our industry, and we value our relationship.
– Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) January 20, 2022
