The past few months have seen several major developments as Microsoft pursues its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The FTC initially filed an injunction against the deal, preventing it from going ahead, however, last week saw a US Judge block that injunction, allowing the deal to proceed in the US.
The UK’s CMA now remains the only opposition to the deal, and we may hear more from them soon. But in the meantime, one of the central arguments against the deal going ahead seems to have been resolved.
Among Activision Blizzard’s many IPs, none is more valuable than Call of Duty, the military first-person shooter worth an estimated $31 billion in 2023, and Sony has been staunchly against the series becoming exclusive to Xbox and PC. Xbox has been making plenty of ten-year deals with various companies, like Nintendo, to keep CoD on other platforms, but until now, Sony and PlayStation have been notably left out.
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.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) July 16, 2023
This has finally changed, as the head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, announced via Twitter that the two publishers have “signed a binding agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard”.
There isn’t currently any official confirmation as to the nature of the deal, but industry insiders expect it to be a ten-year deal, similar to those Microsoft has previously made. If this is the case then PlayStation players can rest easy knowing CoD will remain on their preferred console until at least 2033.
Written by Ryan Woodrow on behalf of GLHF.