It was last May when the video game industry began to tremble after the bombshell that was the announcement that Microsoft had bought Activision-Blizzard, one of the largest conglomerates in the world and factory of some of the most successful and profitable franchises in all of history. So at that precise moment a doubt assailed the users, does that mean that Call of Duty Will it stop being available for PlayStation consoles?
A calculated warmth
Microsoft, faced with such a decision, is torn between two great dilemmas: the first is to ask itself if it can give up the income produced by the franchise within the Sony ecosystem to win an exclusive that is not enough to gain absolute dominance within the console market; and the second is that the lukewarmness of saying and not saying, of not confirming if something like this will happen, is not bad for the company based in Redmond…so they’ve been playing that game for four months now.
Until today, where it could be clear what is the path that can await Call of Duty within the PlayStation world every time Jim Ryan, CEO of Sony’s gaming division, has come out to the media to talk about the matter. And the first thing he has revealed is that the franchise is currently going to fulfill the original agreements with Activision-Blizzard plus three years that he seems to have gotten from Phil Spencer in a series of private conversations.
Now, as we told you before, Microsoft is good for a bit of lukewarmness, of confusion in this matter because while the time comes to officially confirm that once that period has passed, there are many possibilities that Call of Duty will continue to reach the Sony consoles, for a simple matter of numbers, It’s not bad that there is some uncertainty in case the new Xbox Series X | S can take over a larger portion of the market.
Phil Spencer, everyone’s friend
If anything has characterized Phil Spencer’s stage as CEO of Xbox since he took office in January of this year, it is that his statements have always been conciliatory and of respect and recognition towards his competence, which he has praised on many occasions. And in this matter, he has not hesitated to affirm that Call of Duty it will remain within the PlayStation ecosystem beyond those agreements already signed with Activision-Blizzard prior to purchase. But does that statement have a trick?
According to PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan, it seems so because the head of Xbox has brought to light some conversations that were being treated in the strictest privacyand did not like anything:
I didn’t intend to comment on what I understood to be a private business conversation, but I feel the need to set the record straight because Phil Spencer decided to go public. […] Microsoft has only offered that Call of Duty stay on PlayStation for three years after the current deal between Activision and Sony ends. After almost 20 years of Call of Duty on PlayStation, their proposal was not the best in many respects and did not take into account the impact on our players. We want to ensure that PlayStation users continue to have the experience of Call of Duty of the highest quality, and Microsoft’s proposal undermines this principle.
If we take into account that 2023 looks like Call of Duty will modify its release schedule by skipping that year’s delivery, we could be getting into a period close to 2026 or 2027 like the last ones where we would have a new release for PlayStation. But by then the same thing is already in PS6 stores… right?
