4 years ago
Kamran Shamsi
In the wake of Microsoft’s staggering 68.7-billion-dollar acquisition of Activision Blizzard, many PlayStation gamers have been concerned about losing the ability to play their favourite franchises. In particular, Activision’s most profitable series by far, Call of Duty.
These worries were alleviated when CEO of Microsoft Gaming, Phil Spencer (https://twitter.com/xboxp3/status/1484273335139651585) released a Tweet stating:
“Had good calls this week with leaders at Sony. I confirmed our intent to honor 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.”
https://www.callofduty.com/content/dam/atvi/callofduty/cod-touchui/blog/hero/mw-wz/WZ-Season-Three-Announce-TOUT.jpg
Unfortunately, this statement made no indication as to whether Call of Duty would remain on PlayStation following any contractual obligations leading fans to once again speculate on what the future could bring.
However, following a new blog post on the Microsoft website (https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2022/02/09/open-app-store-principles-activision-blizzard/), it appears Microsoft intends to continue to support PlayStation as a platform for Call of Duty following existing agreements. Even more, interestingly, Microsoft has expressed interest in potentially bringing these games to Nintendo as well.
The blog post reads:
“To be clear, Microsoft will continue to make Call of Duty and other popular Activision Blizzard titles available on PlayStation through the term of any existing agreement with Activision. And we have committed to Sony that we will also make them available on PlayStation beyond the existing agreement and into the future so that Sony fans can continue to enjoy the games they love. We are also interested in taking similar steps to support Nintendo’s successful platform. We believe this is the right thing for the industry, for gamers and for our business.”
https://fs-prod-cdn.nintendo-europe.com/media/images/10_share_images/systems_11/nintendo_switch_1/H2x1_NintendoSwitch_Hardware_NintendoSwitch_image1280w.jpg
What shape this may take on Nintendo is unclear at this time. We know that Nintendo has been interested in Cloud gaming following their support of technically demanding titles such as Control and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Therefore, it would be reasonable to assume future Call of Duty games and other Activision titles could follow in the same footsteps.
With the Activision acquisition, Microsoft has gained a slew of franchises to add to their portfolio including Overwatch and even beloved PlayStation icon Crash Bandicoot. Whilst these titles weren’t explicitly mentioned, fans can rest assured that at least Call of Duty will continue to be supported.
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PlayStation 5 Disc Edition: https://stock-checker.com/products/playstation-5.html
PlayStation 5 Digital Edition: https://stock-checker.com/products/playstation-5-digital.html
Images used in this article belong to Microsoft Corporation, Activision Publishing Inc, and Nintendo Co., Ltd respectively.