Mega-Gaming-Franchise "Call of Duty" Speculated to be Released Exclusively on Xbox Following Activision Acquisition
Speculated by me, take these facts and judge yourself!
Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard in a $69 billion deal last week that almost certainly means future Call of Duty games will be released only on Xbox. However, a previous deal between Activision and Sony said the next few games would be on Playstation.
Call of Duty is one of the most popular video game franchises in the world, with over 400 million lifetime units sold and $27 billion in sales since its inception in 2003. Traditionally, it’s been released on Xbox, PC, and PlayStation, with heavy promotions on the PlayStation Store. In 2021, Call of Duty Vanguard was its second-most downloaded PS5 game, only behind NBA2K22 in the US/Canada and FIFA 22 in Europe.
The recently appointed chief executive officer of Microsoft Gaming, Phil Spencer, said last week he spoke to Sony leadership about the franchise.
“I confirmed our intent to honor all existing agreements upon acquisition of Activision Blizzard and our desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation,” he said on Twitter. “Sony is an important part of our industry, and we value our relationship.”
Individuals with knowledge of the deal between Sony and Activision said it was agreed that the next three Call of Duty games would be released on the PlayStation store, but that’s unlikely to happen—despite what Spencer said. The acquisition is expected to close within the next six to 18 months, so realistically only the Call of Duty’s released during that time will be available on the PlayStation Store. Bill Gates does not give a fuck about Microsoft’s relationship with Sony, and is counting the days until he can deprive his rival of one of its top selling franchises.
Microsoft has lied about honoring existing contracts in previous acquisitions. In 2020, following its acquisition of the game publisher Bethesda Softworks, Microsoft said it would retain all existing contracts and release the previously announced Bethesda games Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo on PlayStation. However, when Microsoft released new Bethesda games Starfield and Redfall a few months later, they were exclusive to Xbox and Microsoft Windows PCs. New games from other studios Microsoft bought recently, such as Obsidian Entertainment in a 2018 acquisition, have also skipped the PlayStation Store.
Sony and Playstation users, don’t take this personally—it’s just business.