17 July 2023 , 10:01
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Sony has relented and signed Microsoft's agreement, meaning Call Of Duty will remain on PlayStation platforms for at least 10 years after the Activision acquisition.
Call of Duty has been at the forefront of the Microsoft Activision deal for the most part, with the team at Xbox offering 10-year agreements to competing consoles to dissuade any fears about one of the biggest franchises of all time disappearing from other consoles – the way Starfield and Redfall were bumped from PS5 after Microsoft bought Bethesda. Nintendo and Microsoft entered a 10-year agreement for Call of Duty on Nintendo Switch (and any future Nintendo consoles) earlier this year, but Sony refused to sign on to the offer from Xbox.
Now that the Microsoft Activision deal seems to be a done thing for the most part – with a win in court over the FTC, and word that Xbox Game Pass' content could be changed in the UK to appease the CMA – Sony seems to have accepted it and has signed an agreement with Microsoft. Xbox boss Phil Spencer took to Twitter and announced the deal, saying "we are pleased to announce that Microsoft and PlayStation have signed a binding agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard".
While Spencer's Tweet doesn't mention anything about the 10-year deal, a Microsoft representative confirmed to The Verge that not only is this deal the aforementioned 10-year agreement, but that it also only applies to Call of Duty and not any of Activision's other titles; meaning that any future entries in the Crash Bandicoot, Tony Hawk, Diablo or Overwatch series will only be available on Xbox and PC.
Heist of the century
Everyone's been so distracted by Call of Duty that they've forgotten that Activision Blizzard has a huge number of titles under its belt. It's grand to hear that Call of Duty will remain on PlayStation platforms. An email which came to light during the FTC vs Activision title shows that Phil Spencer offered PlayStation boss Jim Ryan five years of every Activision Blizzard title coming to PlayStation. While the follow up emails aren't available, that deal somehow went from five years of everything to 10 years of just Call of Duty.
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Obviously Crash Bandicoot, Diablo, and Spyro aren't as monumentally huge as Call of Duty is, but those franchises aren't exactly nothing either. Obviously Microsoft will keep supporting games that are already on Sony platforms such as Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 (much like how they have continued to support Minecraft) but I can't help but feel like Xbox has come out with a far better deal under the cover of Call of Duty.