The Microsoft and Activision Blizzard acquisition saga may be almost over, but some fans are aggrieved.
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Although Microsoft has reiterated that it intends to keep Call of Duty cross-platform to the extent that Nintendo was offered a 10-year contract, Sony was concerned that, at some point in the future, Microsoft might pull out the PlayStation series and keep it. the green mark.
If that happened, Microsoft would have shot itself in the foot, especially as it once admitted, it wouldn’t be profitable to restrict Call of Duty to just Xbox, even if it meant taking it away from its fiercest competitor.
When Microsoft took the first steps to acquire Activision Blizzard in January 2022, many would have assumed the acquisition would have been completed by now, although we still have a bit of a way to go until it’s all finalized. The first major hurdle in halting its progression (other than PlayStation boss Jim Ryan putting keys in the process), were attempts by the FTC and CMA to block the deal, both of which are the regulators of the US market. US and UK, respectively.
However, Microsoft recently won a court battle against the opposing FTC, taking another step toward completing the acquisition. Now we just have to wait and see what happens in the UK with the CMA.
After Microsoft’s big court victory, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has revealed that a binding agreement has been signed with PlayStation to ensure Call of Duty stays on the blue brand. Details about that deal, such as the length of the contract, remain undisclosed at this time.
Unfortunately, it seems there’s a good reason Call of Duty was only mentioned in the “binding agreement”, and that’s because the agreement only includes the popular first-person series.
“Points of sale [such as The Verge] posted Phil Spencer’s email to Jim Ryan proposing a 10-year deal to keep ALL CURRENT Activision Blizzard games (CoD, Overwatch, Crash, Spyro, etc.) on PlayStation, was rejected. Now this deal is ONLY FOR CoD. Jim Ryan could have made a big mistake,” said redditor olorin9_alex. “Say goodbye to those classic Microsoft franchises like Crash, Spyro, Diablo, Overwatch, Tony Hawk… Those aren’t in the deal,” exclaimed a sarcastic joeyrvn.
“I couldn’t be careless with COD,” added another user. “I don’t play those kinds of games. Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Dishonored, Doom, and Wolfenstein are the games I’d like to get into, but it looks like that’s not going to happen.”
In other words, once Microsoft officially acquires Activision Blizzard and you’re looking to play games from a publisher other than Call of Duty, it might soon be time to invest in an Xbox Series X|S.