With the news recently that Activision Blizzard games such as Call of Duty, Overwatch, and Diablo will be coming to Game Pass when the Microsoft acquisition is finalized, the topic of Call of Duty appearing on multiple platforms came up.
Head of Xbox Phil Spencer mentioned that Microsoft has “provided a signed agreement to Sony to guarantee Call of Duty on PlayStation, with feature and content parity, for at least several more years.”
"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 said to GamesIndustry.biz.
Microsoft has offered to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for three years after the present partnership ends. After 20 years of Call of Duty on PlayStation, their plan was inadequate and didn't consider 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
We want to guarantee PlayStation gamers continue to have the highest quality Call of Duty experience, and Microsoft’s proposal undermines this principle
The irony is that PlayStation has locked up exclusive content franchises like Call of Duty and Destiny. They’ve also raised the price of PlayStation 5 games from $60 to $70. They also had console-exclusive deals for Bethesda titles like Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo.
That’s not to say that Microsoft is innocent here; the highly anticipated Bethesda RPG Starfield will be Xbox exclusive. The company also had exclusive Call of Duty content before Sony’s most recent deal with Activision.