Hot on the heels of the announcement that Microsoft is acquiring Activision Blizzard, there were many questions about anti-competition laws, and more specifically, what this record-breaking deal would mean for hugely popular franchises like ‘Call of Duty. While PlayStation came out saying it would expect Xbox to honor deals in place, we had no idea what that meant… until now. It seems that when the 50billion pound (or 69billion dollar) acquisition broke, there were already deals in place between Sony and Activision Blizzard in a similar way to how there was with Bethesda before Xbox acquired Zenimax.
Although that deal included both Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo as timed exclusives on Sony’s PlayStation 5, even those exclusives likely pale in significance next to the mammoth Call of Duty series. Call of Duty is currently getting a new game every year, with multiple studios taking turns and sharing the workload. According to Bloomberg.com, four anonymous sources that have to remain so due to not being authorized to speak to the press confirmed that Activision had already committed to making the next few Call of Duty titles available on PlayStation formats.
That deal includes this year’s upcoming title, likely developed by Infinity Ward, and the following title for 2023. The deal also apparently includes a new iteration of Call of Duty: Warzone, the free-to-play battle royale experience. Xbox boss Phil Spencer last week also confirmed the company intends to honor all existing agreements upon the acquisition completion, saying he felt Sony is an important part of the industry and he values the relationship. So for now, at least, Call of Duty is remaining on PlayStation. Whether that will continue in 2024 and beyond, we’ll have to wait and see.
