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Spencer promised that Microsoft won’t take the series from PlayStation.
Microsoft is still in the midst of its landmark efforts to acquire video game publisher Activision Blizzard. Should this acquisition go through, Microsoft would get primary rights over some of the most popular and profitable gaming franchises in the world, not the least of which being Call of Duty. However, it’s precisely for this reason that the acquisition has been met with heavy resistance from regulatory bodies; many believe Microsoft having the final say on such a major franchise would be monopolistic in nature.
In a recent interview with the Same Brain podcast, Xbox head Phil Spencer once again reaffirmed the company’s position on the matter: Microsoft has no intention to withhold new Call of Duty releases from other major consoles, particularly PlayStation.
“We’re not taking Call of Duty from PlayStation,” Spencer said. “Our intent is not to do that and long as there is a PlayStation out there to ship to, our intent is that we continue to ship Call of Duty on PlayStation. Similar to what we’ve done with Minecraft, we’ve expanded the places that people can play Minecraft [and] we haven’t reduced the places.”
In a new podcast, Xbox’s Phil Spencer says Call of Duty will remain on PlayStation “as long as there is a PlayStation out there to ship to” pic.twitter.com/GtEda90rx1
— CharlieIntel (@charlieINTEL) October 31, 2022
Call of Duty has proven to be a major sticking point for PlayStation and Sony, who have expressed concern that the current iteration of Microsoft’s acquisition deal with Activision Blizzard only guarantees a scant few access of multiplatform guarantees. Sony has asserted that the only way to ensure Microsoft doesn’t try to take advantage of them would be to halt the acquisition entirely.
