News game The next Call of Duty on PS5 and PS4? Microsoft responds!
Since the announcement of a future acquisition of Activision-Blizzard by Microsoft, fans who do not own a beautiful PC or an Xbox are worried … and with good reason, since not seeing a Call of Duty, an extremely popular license, on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 in the near future would be bad news. Even if Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox Game Studios, has already spoken on the subject to reassure fans, Microsoft decides to set the record straight today in an official statement.
No shake-up for Call of Duty
Since the dawn of time or almost the Call of Duty saga is released on all machines to please everyone … Good news, it will continue for a long time. Indeed, Brad Smith, the vice president and president of Microsoft, has just confirmed the big news : game Call of Duty : Warzone, but also other Activision-Blizzard licenses, will indeed be released in the future on competing platforms, starting with Sony’s.
To be clear, Microsoft will continue to make Call of Duty and other popular Activision-Blizzard titles available on PlayStation, and this, until the end of any existing agreement with Activision. And we have committed to Sony to make these licenses also available on PlayStation beyond the existing agreement and in the future, so that Sony fans can continue to enjoy the games they love. Bad Smith, vice president and president of Microsoft”‘
Now that it’s written in black and white, there’s plenty to be reassured about. Brad Smith even adds that this decision will also apply to the Nintendo Switch.
We also want to take similar steps to support Nintendo’s successful platform. We think it’s the right thing to do for the industry, for the players and for our company. Brad Smith
Since the Call of Duty saga has not been released on Nintendo’s machines for a long time, this probably means that this statement concerns other popular series like Crash Bandicoot, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater or else Spyro, which, again, will delight fans.
Towards more transparent shops
Brad Smith takes advantage of the situation to claim that the Windows PC Store and the Xbox store are now opening their doors to many developers in order to promote competition in the application markets. For this, several new rules are established.
The new rules of the Windows Store :
Windows Store PCs and consoles
- We will allow all developers access to our app store, provided that they meet reasonable and transparent standards for quality and security.
- We will continue to protect consumers and gamers who use our app store, ensuring that developers comply with our security standards.
- We will continue to respect the privacy of consumers in our app stores, giving them the means to manage their data and the use made of it.
- We will impose the same standards on our own applications as on competing applications.
- We will not use any non-public information or data from our app store to compete with developers’ apps.
- We will treat applications equally in our application store without unreasonably prioritizing or classifying our applications or those of our business partners over others.
- We will be transparent about the promotion and marketing rules in our app store and we will apply them consistently and objectively.
Windows Store PC only
- We will not require our app store developers to use our payment system to process in-app payments.
- We will not require the developers of our application store to offer more favorable terms in our application store than in other application stores.
- We will not put developers at a disadvantage if they choose to use a payment processing system other than ours or if they offer different terms in other application stores.
- We will not prevent developers from communicating directly with their customers through their applications for legitimate business purposes, such as pricing conditions and product or service offers.
The fact that Microsoft will continue to port Call of Duty games to other platforms and has implemented new rules on the Windows Store are not trivial decisions… Indeed, they would allow the American giant to promote competition and thus acquire Activision-Blizzard more easily. As we had already specified in a previous article, in order for Microsoft to be able to buy Activision-Blizzard, the agreement, to be accepted, must be reviewed by several authorities around the world and deemed non-competitive.
By Jeromejoffard, Editorial jeuxvideo.com
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