Xbox chief Phil Spencer has made a clear promise to Microsoft so far about the future of Call of Duty on PlayStation platforms.
Talking to same brain Youtube channel, Spencer has vowed to continue releasing Call of Duty games on Sony consoles “as long as there is a PlayStation there to ship them”.
The future of Call of Duty on PlayStation has become a contentious topic for regulators such as the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which is currently scrutinizing Microsoft’s planned $68 million acquisition of COD publisher Activision Blizzard.
Microsoft has repeatedly said it will continue to release Call of Duty games for the foreseeable future — and previously Call of Duty promised to stay on PlayStation “at least several more years” after the current Sony deal With Activision Blizzard. However, regulators have questioned how long that will actually take, and whether and when Activision Blizzard is owned by Microsoft.
Here’s Spencer’s latest quote on the whole topic:
“We don’t take Call of Duty from PlayStation… that’s not our intent,” Spencer said. “Our goal is not to do that, and as long as there’s a PlayStation available for shipping, our goal is that we’ll continue to ship Call of Duty on PlayStation – similar to what we’ve done with Minecraft since we owned it.”
“We’ve expanded the places people can play Minecraft, we haven’t scaled back the number of places. And that has been good, and it has been good for the Minecraft community – in my opinion – and we want to do the same when we think about where Call of Duty can continue over the years.”
Another issue for regulators is the competitive advantage that Microsoft may gain from including Call of Duty in the Game Pass subscription service.
If it does, Microsoft can still continue to launch Call of Duty on PlayStation with its usual £70 upfront price, while instead offering it at no additional cost to Xbox owners who already have Game Pass.
“For the Xbox itself, the players that have invested in our console, the biggest addition you’ll see are some great games coming to Game Pass,” Spencer continued, without specifically mentioning Call of Duty by name. “This isn’t about pulling those communities out of those other platforms. But I want it to be a great place to watch those games.”
in September, PlayStation and Xbox hits traded over the future of Call of Duty After the UK’s Capital Markets Authority announced it would investigate further into Microsoft’s $68 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
“Giving Microsoft control of Activision games like Call of Duty” had “significant negative effects,” Sony said at the time.
In response, Microsoft responded: “It makes no sense for Microsoft to remove Call of Duty from PlayStation given its leading position in the console market.”
This last promise comes from Spencer The deal faces intense scrutinybefore a final ruling from the UK Capital Markets Authority in the spring of 2023.
