Monday, July 17th 2023
Microsoft and Sony Co-Sign Agreement to Keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for a Decade
Microsoft and Xbox leaders have declared that the Call of Duty series will remain on PlayStation systems for the next ten years, following a possible successful acquisition of the (current owners of the IP) Activision Blizzard video game holding company. Phil Spencer, the outspoken head of Xbox stated via Twitter: "We are pleased to announce that Microsoft and PlayStation have signed a binding agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. We look forward to a future where players globally have more choice to play their favorite games."
His superior, Brad Smith (vice chair and president of Microsoft) added: "From Day One of this acquisition, we've been committed to addressing the concerns of regulators, platform and game developers, and consumers. Even after we cross the finish line for this deal's approval, we will remain focused on ensuring that Call of Duty remains available on more platforms and for more consumers than ever before." The silence on Sony/PlayStation's part is very telling, they are perhaps resigned to the merger becoming concrete this summer. Fans of the series (who favor Sony systems) will be relieved to know that PlayStation 5 and its possible successor are covered for another decade—it will be interesting to see how Sony's planned cloud gaming service will operate with the CoD franchise in mind. Microsoft has been presenting ten-year deals to a variety of rivals over the past year, with Sony and Nintendo courted alongside a number of different organizations. NVIDIA and Nintendo agreed on 10-year partnerships with Xbox earlier this year.
Source:
Eurogamer
His superior, Brad Smith (vice chair and president of Microsoft) added: "From Day One of this acquisition, we've been committed to addressing the concerns of regulators, platform and game developers, and consumers. Even after we cross the finish line for this deal's approval, we will remain focused on ensuring that Call of Duty remains available on more platforms and for more consumers than ever before." The silence on Sony/PlayStation's part is very telling, they are perhaps resigned to the merger becoming concrete this summer. Fans of the series (who favor Sony systems) will be relieved to know that PlayStation 5 and its possible successor are covered for another decade—it will be interesting to see how Sony's planned cloud gaming service will operate with the CoD franchise in mind. Microsoft has been presenting ten-year deals to a variety of rivals over the past year, with Sony and Nintendo courted alongside a number of different organizations. NVIDIA and Nintendo agreed on 10-year partnerships with Xbox earlier this year.
23 Comments on Microsoft and Sony Co-Sign Agreement to Keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for a Decade
As for crossplay. I hope that dies. I have never seen a reason why console players should be allowed to play against one another or against PC players. Most games that support this that arent simple puzzle jumpers have faced backlash because the community doesnt know what it wants and the games are impossible to balance on things like in this case MW2 or really just shooters (racers?????) in general, where consoles that run it better, or PCs can simple out class you in reaction time, which is generally important for these types of games.
I get lots of complaints of using movement tech that sHoULdN'T bE iN tHe gAmE when killing controller players.
For the record, I don't care about the aim assist (40% for PC controller players, 60% for console players) as that just adds to the challenge. :D
You don't knee-cap sales of a cash cow like COD, you get it on as many platforms possible.
should we all live in the same houses, drive the same cars and watch the same stuff as well?
Lack of competition leads to rather dull games. So if all games come out for all systems, there is no need for other systems besides just PC. And then all there is, is the same kind of games over and over again with no imagination - just the typical bean counters doing the thinking for game developers and story writers.
Consoles and exclusivity is to create competition which leads to innovation. While current gen is rather pathetic, this isn't going to last forever. If Sony lost the rights to call of duty, then they may have to revive a series like Resistance or maybe Killzone or something else and may lead to be better than the generic rather bullshit that is COD.
I wouldn't at all be surprised if this action was entirely for easing regulators' concerns, to aid the ActiBlizzard-Msft acquisition process.
Overall, I care very little about PS or XB as platforms; however, the influence on PC gaming and the progression of hardware is inter-related. Especially, with basically XB, PS, and PC, all using the same microarchitectures.
When I think back to all my favorite games, most of them are first party titles regardless of what system it was.
I may be wrong.
We are a little off topic here :laugh: :laugh:
Also things like Switch - you can't really carry a PC with you, SteamDeck is not exactly Switch before you say it.
And the steam deck is a Switch. It's a mobile console that uses PC architecture and is open. Switch provides a benefit because it's ecosystem is alive entirely due to their exclusives. If those didn't exist, neither would Switch or Nintendo.
Consoles provide a simple choice, hassle free.