Phil Spencer says Call of Duty games won’t leave PlayStation until there isn’t one.
The Call of Duty franchise isn’t moving away from PlayStation consoles.
Xbox head Phil Spencer mentioned in a recent Sam Brain podcast that Microsoft wants to keep Call of Duty games playable on PlayStation consoles for as long as there is someone to buy them.
The company assured PlayStation gamers in early September that the popular first-person shooter franchise would remain on the console. However, Sony found Microsoft’s offering “inadequate” as it reduced the player experience.
Phil Spencer’s Promise to Gamers
Spencer said in the podcast that Microsoft has no plans to turn the Call of Duty franchise into an Xbox exclusive and that he believes the company’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard will close before the end of Microsoft’s fiscal year.
According to PC Gamer, Microsoft’s 2022 fiscal year will end in June 2023.
The Xbox head also made what appears to be an open promise to PlayStation gamers. “As long as there is a PlayStation to ship to, [Microsoft’s] intention is that we will continue to ship Call of Duty to PlayStation, as [the company] has done with Minecraft ever since,” he said. [He] owns it.”
You may recall that Microsoft acquired Minecraft and the studio behind it, Mojang Studios, in 2014. According to Spencer’s statement in September, despite being owned by Microsoft, the game is available on all platforms, including PlayStation.
Minecraft has also had various successes since its acquisition by Microsoft. According to Business of Apps, the game attracts millions of players every year, especially as Mojang, led by Microsoft, continues to expand the game’s universe.
As of 2021, the game has been played by over 130 million people and has generated $380 million in revenue.
Spencer wants the same to happen with the Call of Duty franchise once its Activision acquisition of Blizzard is complete, saying that he wants to do what he and his team see where the franchise should go over time. can
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – Record Breaker
Microsoft has good reasons for keeping various games in the franchise on the PlayStation. Sony has reported via its official PlayStation Twitter account that the newly released Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 now has the biggest PlayStation launch ever for a Call of Duty game.
GameSpot has reported similar successes on other platforms, most notably through Steam on Xbox and PC.
The wins back up Spencer’s previous statement that preventing Activision Blizzard from distributing Call of Duty games to rival console stores “just wouldn’t be profitable” for either company.
Microsoft Activation Acquisition Deal Status
As of the writing of this article, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) still has Microsoft’s contract with Activision under an “in-depth investigation” since mid-September.
Spencer mentioned in the podcast that Microsoft is still talking to regulators, such as the UK’s CMA, to get the ball rolling on its acquisition deal.
