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Following Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, it was widely expected that Call of Duty would become an Xbox exclusive.
However, Microsoft has now confirmed Call of Duty, along with other Activision Blizzard games, will still be available on PlayStation and Nintendo consoles beyond existing agreements.
Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, confirmed this news on the Microsoft blog with the following statement:
“To be clear, Microsoft will continue to make Call of Duty and other popular Activision Blizzard titles available on PlayStation through the term of any existing agreement with Activision. And we have committed to Sony that we will also make them available on PlayStation beyond the existing agreement and into the future so that Sony fans can continue to enjoy the games they love.”
It looks like the Switch will continue to see games from Activision Blizzard too, as Brad Smith also confirmed that Microsoft will be taking similar steps to support “Nintendo’s successful platform”.
This statement follows the news that the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) will be reviewing Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, to see whether it could be considered as unfair competition.
The FTC recently contributed to the collapse of Nvidia’s acquisition of Arm, so Microsoft will clearly be taking its involvement seriously.
Of course, Call of Duty would still be hugely beneficial to Microsoft, even if it doesn’t become an Xbox exclusive. New releases in the series often top the yearly sales charts, and could help to increase the number of subscribers to Microsoft’s Game Pass subscription service.
If Microsoft stays true to its promise, it should come as great news to PlayStation owners who were worrying about being unable to play future Call of Duty entries without buying an Xbox or gaming.
That said, Microsoft has not committed to making all future Activision Blizzard IPs available on PlayStation and Nintendo, so don’t be surprised to see the Call of Duty publisher announcing Xbox-only games in the future – if the acquisition goes through as planned, that is.
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