Microsoft is committed to hold Call of Duty on PlayStation for “several more years” after the existing agreement between Sony and Activision ends, according to a letter sent by Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, to Jim Ryan, head of PlayStation. It is a movement to clear doubts about a withdrawal of the saga on Sony consoles that could help clear the doubts of some competition organizations that they are analyzing the purchase of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft.
“In January, we offered a signed agreement with Sony to ensure that Call of Duty on PlayStation, which includes equality of features and content for at least several more years after Sony’s current contractan offer that goes beyond the typical agreements in the video game industry”, says Phil Spencer as collected The Verge. There is no mention of how many more years Microsoft would be willing to release Call of Duty on PlayStation, but Bloomberg mentioned earlier this year that Microsoft is committed to offering the saga shooter for “at least the next two years”so the current deal would run until 2024.
Call of Duty and other sagas will debut on Xbox Game Pass
Spencer spoke this week of “giving gamers choice in how they can play their games makes them more accessible” and that developers also “benefit from having a diversity of business models and distribution options for their games.” One of Microsoft’s intentions is brand new Call of Duty, Diablo and others Activision Blizzard news on Xbox Game Passas is done with other games developed by Microsoft.
“the same version of Call of Duty be available on PlayStation at the same time the game is released on other platforms. We will continue to allow players to play against each other using different devices. We know they benefit from that approach because we’ve done it with Minecraft, which continues to be available on multiple platforms and has grown even more since Mojang became part of Microsoft in 2014,” Spencer explained to assure, again, that they do not plan to withdraw Call of Duty at the time of the acquisition.