Sony hopes that Microsoft will respect the agreements between Activision Blizzard and PlayStation concerning its cross-platform franchises… but nothing is certain.
On the video game scene, the two rivals Microsoft and Sony have been fighting for many years to know which of them will have the greatest number of exclusives on its consoles. While Microsoft has just announced that it wants to buy the Activision-Blizzard studio, questions arise as to the security of the licenses produced by the studio on Xbox consoles.
In a previous press release, Phil Spencer assured that for the moment, the time was not for exclusives, and that current players of titles like call of duty, to name just one, should continue to be able to enjoy it, even on PlayStation. However, Sony seems to be worried about the future of this franchise in particular and has decided to respond to this news in an interview.
Asked by The Wall Street Journal, a spokesperson for the company said: we hope that Microsoft will respect the contractual agreements [entre Sony et Activision] and will continue to ensure Activision’s games are cross-platform. A simple sentence which shows that between Activision and PlayStation it is normally far from over, but also a certain cordiality between the competitors.
Tensions in the air?
Sony seems to be on the defensive, and for good reason. For the moment, the contracts between the studio and the manufacturer should allow multiplatform franchises to remain so, and this is rather good news considering that Sony had made call of duty its standard bearer a few years ago. At E3 2015, the firm even said: PlayStation is the new home of Call of Duty. »
It is therefore not surprising that Sony is particularly keen on this contract. Nevertheless, each commercial contract by definition has an expiration date, and Microsoft, in some time, may as well decide to keep all Activision franchises for itself in order to attract as many people as possible to its consoles.
So between fair play, personal interest and contractual obligation, we do not yet know which path Microsoft has decided to take. The answer will be available to us within the next few years. On our side, it is really hard to see how Microsoft could do without all PlayStation players on some of the Activision Blizzard licenses, in particular call of duty. It remains to be seen whether Microsoft will manage to turn the situation in its favor.
