Everyone’s trying to poke holes in Microsoft’s promises call-of-duty Phil Spencer got a little tired of it on the PlayStation once it took control of the Activision Blizzard.
Microsoft’s gaming chief has clarified once and for all what the company actually intends to do with Call of Duty on the PlayStation, leaving no room for other explanations.
On The Verge’s Decoder podcast, Spencer was asked directly about some of the ways Microsoft decided to withdraw from the agreement. Concerns stem largely from the way Spencer’s previous statements were worded.
While Microsoft has been promising to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for years to come, Sony says the proposal is “inadequate on many levels.” Spencer’s response was that as long as there is a PlayStation to ship, Call of Duty will be on it.
Of course, this could be a sneaky way for Microsoft to force Game Pass on to the PlayStation, which would put Sony in an impossible position if it thinks that’s the only way games will ship years from now.
“Native Call of Duty on PlayStation, it’s not about them having to carry Game Pass, not about streaming,” Spencer said. “If they want a streaming version of Call of Duty, we can do that too, just like we do on our own consoles.”
“There’s nothing behind me. This is Call of Duty – Modern Warfare 2 is great on PlayStation, it’s great on Xbox. Next game, next, next, next, next, next [game]. Native to the platform, no Game Pass subscription required. . Sony didn’t have to adopt Game Pass on its platform to make this happen.
“There’s nothing to hide. We want to continue releasing Call of Duty on PlayStation without any weird ‘ahha, I figured it out’.”
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Despite the clarity of this statement, Spencer also added that no contract can be written “forever”, but he is willing to make long-term commitments that Sony/regulators will accept.
If regulators can’t be persuaded to block the deal entirely, that’s probably the best Sony can hope for. By attacking Microsoft’s apparent soft language, platform holders are now able to secure more concrete commitments in public.
That said, the fact that Microsoft clearly intends to bring Call of Duty to Game Pass, which Sony certainly doesn’t want to happen, may be at the root of the debate.
