The whole gaming industry is still reeling in from the massive announcement of Activision Blizzard’s purchase by Microsoft, and we are now beginning to see what other major publishers think of this historic deal. Sony and PlayStation, Microsoft’s longstanding competitor in the gaming space, have released a statement expecting the Xbox company to “ensure Activision games are multiplatform,” which should clue in people of Sony’s current deals with Activision’s Call of Duty franchise.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the PlayStation publisher issued a statement on the massive gaming deal, and it says volumes despite being quite brief:
“We expect that Microsoft will abide by contractual agreements and continue to ensure Activision games are multiplatform,” a Sony spokesperson states.
This statement seems fair, and Microsoft will most likely honor these “contractual agreements.” Deathloop, a Bethesda title, was part of an exclusive deal to release it first on PlayStation consoles, and despite Microsoft’s purchase of the publisher, they have honored this exclusivity. It’s highly likely that Sony has exclusive deals with Activision’s Call of Duty series as well.
All of that said, there’s no telling what will happen once those “contractual agreements” end. As proven by both Elder Scrolls 6 and Starfield, these Microsoft acquisitions were made in order to secure exclusives, and it should not be a surprise to many if Call of Duty in two years or so will be exclusive to both PC and Xbox.
In case you missed it, here is a list of all the known IPs acquired by Microsoft after its historic purchase of Activision Blizzard.
Source: The Wall Street Journal