After the purchase of Activision by Microsoft, the shadow of doubt about games like Call of Duty hovers again. Indeed it is the war game the one that raises the most controversy for most players and the one that can make Microsoft add brutal value to its consoles or not.
Let’s not fool ourselves, the simple fact that all Call of Duty games are on Xbox Game Pass is already a claim that can do a lot of damage to its competition, but if they are also available only on Xbox consoles… many players would jump from a machine to another without much thought.
Xbox plans to honor current agreements with Call of Duty
On this occasion, Phil Spencer has spoken to clear the controversy, or at least to try, since his words come with their peculiar dose of ambiguity, for a change. The head of the Xbox division has clarified that existing agreements will be respected after speaking with Sony earlier this week, so those who were looking forward to the next Call of Duty on PlayStation can breathe easy for now.
But what about the rest of the deliveries? Will they reach the Japanese consoles? This is Quote:
I had good calls this week with the leadership at Sony. I confirmed our intention to honor all existing agreements following the 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.
As I said, there are many interpretations, we will have to wait and see what the facts tell us. That Microsoft expresses a desire to keep Call of Duty on Sony consoles has a lot of fine print because we don’t know if there are requirements behind it for that to happen. That one of the best-selling shooters in history stays on Xbox could be conditional on Cloud Gaming being available on Sony consoles, for example.
Likewise, “express desire” is not an affirmation of anything either. We do not know if it refers to the fact that the current games continue to receive support or that one of the 3 studios that have destined for the franchise ventures with a delivery on PlayStation.
Faced with these statements, I would personally agree that for now what has been signed will be maintained and in the future we will see. There is a lot of fine print and behind-the-scenes dealings to draw conclusions from such vague words. What we do know is that the new Call of Duty games will launch on Xbox Game Pass and presumably with improvements and benefits for Xbox consoles.