Phil Spencer Says ‘Call Of Duty’ Will Be On PlayStation As Long As There Is A PlayStation

Phil Spencer keeps finding new and creative ways to express that Call of Duty is going to keep being sold on PlayStation and not become an Xbox exclusive, as Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal continues to face regulatory scrutiny.

The progression of Spencer’s comments have been:

• He said that Microsoft would honor all contracts between Activision & Sony.
• He stated that he had signed a contract with Sony to ensure that Call of Duty would continue to be available on PlayStation for many years beyond the original agreement (several turned into three according to Sony).
• Now today, on the Same Brain show, Spencer is removing any kind of time limit entirely, saying “”as long as there is a PlayStation out there to ship to, our intent is that we continue to ship Call of Duty on PlayStation.”

This would echo past statements by Microsoft, which have repeatedly said that they intend to treat Call of Duty as Minecraft. They acquired the multiplatform game in 2010 and made it available on multiple platforms, even though it was not a rival. In theory, this kind of deal should work well for everyone.

It has always seemed fairly obvious where all this was heading, and it’s to a place Sony still won’t like even if Call of Duty will remain available on the platform.

Microsoft will undoubtedly offer Call of Duty in Xbox Game Pass, even though the Activision deal with Sony has ended. This will also mean that special bonuses such as early beta access and exclusive operators on PlayStation will be eliminated.

Sony will keep Call of Duty on PlayStation. But it will just be sold for $70, as usual. This will allow players to be tempted by Xbox to purchase it as part of Game Pass. Now, Sony will funnel money to Microsoft directly through sales. Albeit they’ll still have the game, still make money through sales themselves, in addition to post-launch microtransactions.

That’s it, that’s where this is going, and I’m not sure how much more clear Phil Spencer or Microsoft can be at this point. Sony is pulling out all the stops to try and kill the deal entirely, which at this point, Activision itself says it would be devastating to the company if it didn’t go through, but certain regions are having more problems with it than others, specifically the UK most recently.

It will eventually happen, and the above scenario will play out exactly as I said. It won’t change much for players, but Sony will not love it, even though they have access to COD, Phil said.

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