The tech giant on Tuesday (December 18th) announced news of its biggest acquisition deal to date – the purchase of Activision Blizzard for $68,7 billion.
This means that Microsoft now owns Call of Duty, Warcraft, StarCraft, Overwatch, Candy Crush, Crash Bandicoot, and other popular franchises.
Naturally, speculation about the future of these franchises began immediately, with the biggest question being what this acquisition will mean for the PlayStation and Activision Blizzard IPs now owned by Microsoft.
Xbox head confirms Call of Duty is staying on PlayStation
Earlier today, a Sony representative said they hoped Microsoft would honor the "contractual agreements" they had with Activision Blizzard, and now Phil Spencer is confirming this via his personal Twitter account.
22:15 a.m. January 20, 2022
55.8K
7.3K
“We had some great calls this week with Sony executives,” Spencer wrote. “I have confirmed our intention to honor all existing agreements upon the acquisition of Activision Blizzard and our desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation. »
Spencer further points out that "Sony is an important part of our industry" and that Xbox "appreciates our relationship" with them.
This stands in stark contrast to the ambiguity that followed Microsoft's acquisition of Bethesda, where no one was quite sure what would happen with future Bethesda games.
It was later confirmed that new ZeniMax Media games, like Starfield, Redfall and TES 6, will be Xbox and PC exclusives, while they also "honoured contractual agreements" for Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo, which are developed by studios now owned by Microsoft. , but previous deals have them as PlayStation exclusives for six months after launch.
While Spencer's tweet this time around doesn't seem vague, "the desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation" can be interpreted in a number of ways. Perhaps this only applies to current Call of Duty games and those already in development for PlayStation.
From a financial standpoint, it makes perfect sense for Microsoft to keep Call of Duty games on a platform as big as PlayStation. Call of Duty games are the best-selling PlayStation games every year and having Call of Duty games available on Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation at full price (say $70) seems like a win-win situation and an easy decision for Microsoft.
- Read more: Is Call of Duty coming to Xbox Game Pass?
Image courtesy of Activision Blizzard/Microsoft.
