Microsoft president and vice chairman Brad Smith, and Xbox head Phil Spencer announced that Sony has signed its 10-year deal offering to keep Call of Duty games on PlayStation consoles. The deal is seen as a win for the tech giant but has been under scrutiny in the US over its acquisition of video game company Activision Blizzard. Now, details of the deal between Sony and Microsoft are out.
Kari Perez, head of global communications at Xbox, told The Verge that the 10-year commitment is to bring only the Call of Duty game on PlayStation and not other Activision games. This means that the deal is similar to a 10-year agreement between Microsoft and Nintendo, and not like the ones offered to Nvidia and other cloud gaming platforms. The cloud platforms will get Call of Duty and other Activision games.
The report also noted that the deal which Microsoft offered to Sony in January 2022 included keeping “all existing Activision console titles on Sony, including future versions in the Call of Duty franchise or any other current Activision franchise on Sony through December 31st, 2027.”
Sony’s deal with Activision for Call of Duty is due to expire in 2024 which means that PlayStation Exclusive content for the game may not come on future releases of the game.
Sony’s resistance to Microsoft deal
Since the early days, Sony has been resisting Activision’s merger with Microsoft. The Japanese company initially said that Microsoft could make Activision games, especially the Call of Duty, Xbox-exclusive. In response, Microsoft said that it will bring Call of Duty to its rivals’ platforms, including PlayStation.
Sony later tweaked its stance saying that Microsoft could bring a sabotaged version of the Call of Duty games on PlayStation. Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan was also not happy with the list of Activision games that would remain on PlayStation.
However, during the recent US Federal Trade Commission vs Microsoft hearing, an email revealed that Ryan wasn’t actually worried about Call of Duty exclusivity and was “pretty sure we will continue to see Call of Duty on PlayStation for many years to come.”
