What you need to know
- Microsoft purchased gaming giant Activision Blizzard for nearly $70 billion earlier in the year.
- Companies, governments, and regulatory boards have since had many questions about the future exclusivity of franchises, specifically Call of Duty.
- Xbox head Phil Spencer made a commitment that Call of Duty would be available on Xbox for several more years, offering PlayStation a deal that would allow it to remain on PlayStation for three years on after its current contract is set to expire in another three years.
- PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan has now come out and called these terms “inadequate on many levels.”
Microsoft’s colossal acquisition of Activision Blizzard hasn’t all been smooth sailing since it was announced in January.
With regulatory boards closely examining the deal and requesting reassurances that franchises like Call of Duty will remain multiplatform, Xbox head Phil Spencer publicly committed to keeping the popular FPS series on PS5 for at least “several more years.” Unfortunately, PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan believes that these terms were “inadequate.”
Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Ryan says, “Microsoft has only offered for Call of Duty to remain on PlayStation for three years after the current agreement between Activision and Sony ends. After almost 20 years of Call of Duty on PlayStation, their proposal was inadequate on many levels and failed to take account of the impact on our gamers. We want to guarantee PlayStation gamers continue to have the highest quality Call of Duty experience, and Microsoft’s proposal undermines this principle.”
Call of Duty’s current contract with PlayStation is expected to expire in two years (or three more releases), so with an additional extension of three years in Spencer’s proposal, PlayStation users wouldn’t miss out on a Call of Duty until 2027 or 2028 at the earliest.
In a statement to The Verge last week, Spencer said that this offer went “well beyond typical gaming industry agreements.”
It’s unclear whether the companies will continue to work towards any sort of agreement that keeps Call of Duty on PlayStation consoles beyond what Xbox has already offered.
