When Microsoft announced its acquisition of Activision, one immediate assumption was that the Call of Duty franchise would release solely for Xbox going forward. However, Microsoft would later insinuate this wouldn’t be the case and that certain Activision titles would continue to release for other platforms, such as PlayStation.
Very recently, Xbox boss Phil Spencer even told The Verge that an agreement had been signed with Sony to ensure Call of Duty games would release for PlayStation for at least “several more years” after Sony’s own contract with Activision had expired. However, PlayStation’s own Jim Ryan has called out Microsoft, saying that by “several”, Microsoft only meant three.
“I hadn’t intended to comment on what I understood to be a private business discussion, but I feel the need to set the record straight because Phil Spencer brought this into the public forum,” Ryan told GamesIndustry.biz.
Spencer described Microsoft’s offer as “an offer that goes well beyond typical gaming industry agreements,” but Ryan clearly disagrees, calling it “inadequate.”
“Microsoft has only offered for Call of Duty to remain on PlayStation for three years after the current agreement between Activision and Sony ends,” he says. “After almost 20 years of Call of Duty on PlayStation, their proposal was inadequate on many levels and failed to take account of the impact on our gamers. We want to guarantee PlayStation gamers continue to have the highest quality Call of Duty experience, and Microsoft’s proposal undermines this principle.”
While Call of Duty has never been a PlayStation exclusive, Activision and Sony have had a special arrangement regarding the franchise for a long time. There’s a reason why the public betas for the more recent entries, including the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, were made available on PlayStation first.
Assuming the acquisition goes through, Microsoft wouldn’t be able to immediately make the series Xbox exclusive because that arrangement would still be in place. Once the deal expires, though, then there’s technically nothing stopping Call of Duty from going Xbox only.
This isn’t the first time Sony’s been critical of the Microsoft/Activision deal. Last month, the company argued that Call of Duty is too popular for any other franchise to reasonably compete with it, and it belonging to Microsoft would influence people into choosing an Xbox console over a PlayStation.
The deal is also facing scrutiny from regulators. Microsoft needs approval before it can finalize its acquisition, and the UK regulator believes it could be in breach of competition laws. Basically, Microsoft needs to prove that owning Activision won’t give it an unfair advantage in the gaming market, which Sony obviously thinks it will.
