Since the surprising news of the takeover of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, the eternal questions have resurfaced. They all revolve around whether or not the new franchises will be exclusive to those in Redmond. This debate has already arisen in the wake of Zenimax’s Bethesda acquisition months ago and has moved rivers of ink both in forums and on social media.
Phil Spencer shed light on this. On Twitter, Spencer claimed she had “friendly calls” with “Sony executives” this week. He was talking about the “Microsoft’s intention to honor all existing agreements” once Activision Blizzard is acquired, as well as “Microsoft’s desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation”. “Sony is an important part of our industry and we value our relationship,” the Xbox executive confirmed.
On the other side, Sony also said it wants Microsoft to “respect contractual agreements and continue to ensure Activision games are cross-platform.” The wording of Spencer’s statement, as a good communicator, can have several meanings. The free battle royale Call of Duty: Warzone It would be totally illogical for it to be removed from the PS5 and PS4, especially given its free to play concept. So maybe that’s what he means when he talks about “Microsoft’s desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation”.
Anyway, the question has many edges. Microsoft may release premium content or exclusive extras. It might even release an “enhanced” version (remember Sony’s exclusive version of Terminator: Resistant for the next generation).
What seems clear, and given the Zenimax-Bethesda case and star field, is that once the agreement is formalized, certain Activision Blizzard games will be completely exclusive to Xbox. The only certain thing is that all the certainties will arrive in 2023, when the agreement will be something formal and concrete.
Until then, keep reading Xbox Area to stay up to date with this and other news.
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