After the acquisition of Activision by Microsoft, the shadow of doubt on games like Call of Duty hovers again. Indeed it is the war game the one that raises the most controversy for most players and one that can make or break Microsoft add brutal value to its consoles.
Let’s face it, the mere fact that all Call of Duty games are on Xbox Game Pass is already a claim that can hurt its competition a lot, but if they’re also only available on Xbox consoles…many players would jump it from machine to machine without much thought.
Xbox plans to honor current agreements with Call of Duty
On this occasion, Phil Spencer took the floor to clarify the controversy, or at least to try, since his remarks come with their particular dose of ambiguity, to change. The head of the Xbox division clarified that existing agreements will be respected after speaking with Sony earlier this week, so those who were looking forward to the next Call of Duty on PlayStation can breathe for now.
But what about the rest of the deliveries? Will they reach Japanese consoles? It is Appointment:
I had some good calls this week with Sony management. I confirmed our intention to honor all existing agreements following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard and our desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation. Sony is an important part of our industry and we value our relationship.
As I said there are many interpretations, we will have to wait and see what the facts tell us. The fact that Microsoft is expressing a desire to keep Call of Duty on Sony consoles is in a lot of fine print as we don’t know if there are any requirements behind it for that to happen. Whether one of the best-selling shooters in history remains on Xbox could be contingent on Cloud Gaming being available on Sony consoles, for example.
Similarly, “expressing desire” is also not an affirmation of anything. It’s unclear if this refers to the current games continuing to receive support or if one of the 3 studios that have set their sights on the franchise are venturing out with a PlayStation delivery.
Faced with these statements, I would personally agree that for the moment what has been signed will be maintained and in the future we will see. There’s a lot of fine print and behind-the-scenes dealings to draw conclusions from such vague words. What we do know is that new Call of Duty games will launch on Xbox Game Pass and likely with improvements and benefits for Xbox consoles.
