Microsoft Signed an Agreement to Keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for 'Several More Years' Beyond Current Deal - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 September 2022 / 7,110 Views
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer in a statement sent to The Verge stated Microsoft signed an agreement to Sony in a written letter sent to PlayStation boss Jim Ryan in January. The agreement is that Microsoft will keep Call of Duty on PlayStation consoles for "several more years" beyond the current Sony deal.
"In January, we provided a signed agreement to Sony to guarantee Call of Duty on PlayStation, with feature and content parity, for at least several more years beyond the current Sony contract, an offer that goes well beyond typical gaming industry agreements," said Spencer.
It isn't clear the exact number of years, but it has been reported Sony's marketing deal for Call of Duty might end in 2024 and the use of the word "several" would likely mean 3 or more years. This does suggest Call of Duty will remain on PlayStation consoles through at least the end of the current generation.
Microsoft announced in January of this year its plans to acquire Activision Blizzard in a deal worth $68.7 billion.
Sony previously claimed to Brazil's regulatory body the Activision Blizzard acquisition is anti-competitive as it could influence people to switch from PlayStation to Xbox and said the Call of Duty series is on its own level of popularity and it is has been the "overwhelmingly the best-selling game" for its genre.
Microsoft says that Sony does not want to see Call of Duty available on Xbox Game Pass on day one as Sony doesn't want to compete with the service and that "Sony is limited to commenting on Call of Duty's brand strength and loyalty and engagement. However, claiming that Call of Duty has a loyal following is a premise from which the conclusion that the game is a 'category of games in itself; does not follow.
Saudi Arabia's competition authority last month became the first place to approve Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The Communications Workers of America, the largest communications and media labor union in the United States, sent a letter to the FTC in June in support of the proposed acquisition.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in the UK this week said following its initial investigation into Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard that it has concerns as the acquisition would give Microsoft control over some of the most popular games in the industry like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft. The CMA have given Microsoft and Activision Blizzard until September 8 to respond to the concerns and that if the responses are not received by then it will do a Phase 2 investigation. In this case it will appoint an independent panel to take a closer look at the deal.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Probably through the end of the PS5/Xbox Series X console cycle, and than changing it for the PS6/next Xbox system.
This is probably the correct answer and the one that probably satisfies all parties involved to the extent that that is possible. Sony has a whole generation to prepare for life after COD now, and Microsoft will have time to build up a larger install base to make the transition more cost effective
And Sony is not at the mercy of CoD. If they have a sense that this may happen, then they have this generation to resuscitate Killzone, MAG, Planetside, etc. Maybe work with EA to bring back Medal of Honor either exclusively on PS, or playing best on PS (timed exclusivity, or something). Or create new shooter IPs.
I doubt cod will ever leave playstation. That's why sony bought bungie. If they try remove cod, sony will backfire with destiny and other shooters being removed from xbox, and they will blame miccrosoft for it. And then chaos will arise and backlash to the microsoft team from owners of xbox. Was a smart move by sony.
I'm going to enjoy listening to what phil spencer would have to say to the fanbase if it ever does get to that stage.
you are overestimating the value of Destiny. Secondly Bungie requested to stay multiplat and was guaranteed that contractually, so Sony can't make it exclusive.
I'm pretty sure there are terms not discussed.
Surely the money they would forgo far outweighs some sort of exclusivity. The board of MS aren't going to pass up that much money.
Not being on playstation was never realistically on the cards for foreseeable future. The key part of the agreement is
"feature and content parity"
If Playstation lost every CoD game today, I believe Playstation would do just fine.
Microsoft will slowly and surely just gobble everything up just like what Disney is doing and ain't nuffin we can do about that
If Sony can't figure out how to compete against Microsoft with Activision under their belt in 6 years, then that's just too damn bad for them.
Yeah. That's what I'm saying. And, if it is a problem, that's just a massive failure on Sony's part. Not a legit reason to disallow Microsoft to purchase Activision.
Like MS couldn't figure out how to compete against Sony for several gens and had to come out with streaming and using MS deep pockets to buy themselves a chance?
Huh?
He said if Sony can't figure how to counter the loss of CoD... then I asked him about MS not figuring how to fight Sony for several gens and having to resort to big pockets to buy pubs because they weren't able to create and foster their own studios. Not sure what isn't making sense here.
They were suppliers for HW parts, had a business deal with Nintendo which they backpedaled and Sony to not scrap the project decided to go forward by itself.
By both competitors making lousy decisions by themselves Sony was able to gain market.
Sony entered the market using their money to massively undercut other platforms on licensing fees, buying studios, and paying for exclusive games.
It’s only a problem now because it’s Microsoft buying studios. No one would care if it was Sony. Just like if MS makes Tomb Raider a one year console exclusive its the end of the world but no one cares if Sony buys SFV or FF7remakePart1 for life lol
So your argument is that Sony won't be able to figure it out, even with 6 years to do so?
Not really, they will be able to live without CoD, now if they will be able to create something that becomes bigger than CoD that is hard since well several companies tried and couldn`t even with experience with FPS.
You probably won't see COD on PS+
Devs must be salivating right now calling up Jim pitching ideas for an online shooter.
Sie should be funding every pitch that looks promising. A platform without COD leave the door open for smaller fps shooters to rise up not having to compete with cod on that platform. Combine that with Bungie who should not be overlooked and sie have a shot at their own gaas shooter. If MS makes cod exclusive even tho Bungie is independent it won't be too hard for sie to convince them to start making their games exclusive to PS, and in that case i can't see Bungie saying "nah".
Bungie said they got contractual language out of Sony to maintain platform neutrality for their games. The studio heads and producers at Bungie made it abundantly clear they have no interest in producing Sony exclusives, and if pushed they would probably leave.
Bungie was brought on to SIE to share technology and expertise. Their live service tech and methods are going to be brought on to other Sony projects
You can't really leave after you get bought that's not how it works. You can make agreements, sure. But you can't make a 1 billion dollar bill undone, without at least that amount of money. Everyone at Bungie could resign meaning the end of Bungie, but it can't leave PlayStation unless it buys itself out
I didn’t mean to say the studio would leave, I meant the studio heads and creative leads would leave
And they likely would also have to return money or not receive what was promissed depending on when they leave. As he said they would move Bungie to remove from Xbox if and when CoD leaves PS.
Believe in what that the contract have terms that prevent someone from living as soon as the deal is signed and still receiving the full bonus? I believe.
Well going on how many new MP games Sony are developing, they are trying to find an alternative to COD. Still while MS have guaranteed COD on PS consoles, this may still allow them to leverage DLC, do preferential advertising and the like to draw gamers away from Sony. Expect this to start as soon as the existin contracts Sony has expire.
That's nice of MS and will give Sony a few years to come up with a strategy for if/when MS takes CoD away.
Good that it will be still on PS.
As for whether it only comes as part of a GP service that hasn't been said. I can't see Sony ever allowing gamepass in its current form to come. The only way would be a MSFT studios only service like EA or UBI.
Microsoft will use Game Pass to start pulling more players to the Xbox platforms and Game Pass platforms over the next few years. Allowing them to mitigate any damages of losing out on the PlayStation player with the next generation.
However, I see Sony coming to terms with Game Pass and might allow the service to appear on a PS6 when that bridge comes into view.
So several and not permanent.... and also not even defined.
Yep exactly. I’ve heard numerous people talk like CoD would remain on PS forever, but I’ve never heard Spencer say those words. He always used language that implied temporary continuation of CoD on PS.
Honestly, I feel like I’m taking crazy pills that I hear nearly no one speak out against this deal. I truly don’t see how this is allowed. A company as large as MS should be forced to have their individual businesses more walled off and forced to operate more independently, so that maybe they were only allowed to throw something like 50% more cash at an acquisition for a specific business than what that individual business currently had in cash. Hell, even 100%. But for big daddy MS—the second largest company in the entire world, that generates more profit per year than the entire market cap of 90% of current companies, and who is 20x larger than Sony and nearly 40x larger than Nintendo—to be allowed to throw $69 billion from their non-gaming cash cow businesses at an acquisition for their gaming business to literally buy their way into first place seems not right to me. It’s a very similar issue with Disney being allowed to buy all of Fox. No one else is even close to them any longer. But anyone who’s paying attention knows that money undoubtedly exchanged hands with US politicians to make the deal happen.
These purchases are only going to get larger as these behemoth companies get larger and larger, and if our corrupt, lobbying government doesn’t put a stop to it, Amazon, FB, MS, Google, and Apple will be allowed to buy their way into first place for anything.
I am okay with them buying companies as it will end up on gamepass. With being on gamepass, more people get to play them as its on console, pc and the cloud for mobile gamers. That targets a huge number of potential gamers compared to being stuck to only playstation or Nintendo. More players the better for any existing or new ips
So its okay for Sony to buy exclusive rights to CoD and keeping content off other platforms, so Sony can stay on top? Because MS is rich they cannot compete?
You know...there are policies in place to make it so a company can't have a monopoly. If there was any realistic chance of that happening, it wouldn't go through, no matter how much you think paying off some politicians would change that. It would take a lot more than ABK being acquired for a monopoly to happen. With that said, the only thing this will do is actually make things more competitive. When has MS ever been close to winning or having any kind of real dominance in gaming? Oh yeah, never.
Exactly, all i hear is Xbox is 3rd place all the time, if thats truly the case, they have little to worry about. Competition is good.
"You know...there are policies in place to make it so a company can't have a monopoly."
The company we're talking about LITERALLY has a monopoly in the OS sector and has been charged multiple times with using that monopoly to unfairly disadvantage competition.
They dont own a Monopoly in the OS department, ever heard of Apple?
Apple has 15% of the desktop/laptop market against Windows at 75%. What are you talking about?
Apple exists to compete. Its not MSs fault Windows dominates Apples OS. Windows is one thing MS beat Apple in, Apple beat MS is other departments. Both corps give themselves healthy competition.
Also dont forget Android ;)
You clearly showed your knowledge on the subject.
Damn Sony really needs CoD to stay ravlient. I am sure when Sony signed deals with CoD they did their best to give their competitors the least amount of support as possible. Eg: content.
Based on Sony's reaction to this buyout, seems the opposite.
PlayStation is revenue is bigger than Xbox and ActiBliz combined let that sink in before calling them irrelevant after the loss of one massive series
I wonder what the XB reaction would've been if Destiny and future Bungie games were going to be exclusive to PS instead of multiplatform?
How nice of Sony to save Phil from having to vocalize that.
And considering Phill the purchase is useless right?
you mean Microsoft needs call of duty to BE relevant?
Need for Greed.
