Microsoft has committed to keeping Call of Duty on PlayStation for "several more years" beyond Sony's current marketing agreement with Activision. Microsoft Gaming CEO and Xbox chief Phil Spencer made the commitment in a written letter to PlayStation head Jim Ryan earlier this year, and it's the clearest indication yet that Call of Duty will not vanish from PlayStation platforms if Microsoft's $68.7 billion deal is approved by regulators.
"In January, we provided Sony with a signed agreement to guarantee Call of Duty on PlayStation, with feature and content parity, for at least several more years beyond the current Sony contract, an offer that goes far beyond typical gaming industry agreements," Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer says in a statement to The Verge.
It's unclear how long Call of Duty will be available on PlayStation, but Bloomberg reported earlier this year that Microsoft was committed to releasing the game on PlayStation "for at least the next two years," implying that Sony's marketing deal for the franchise could expire in 2024. In February, Microsoft publicly committed to keeping Call of Duty "available on PlayStation beyond the existing agreement and into the future."
Fans of Call of Duty continue to debate whether Microsoft could technically make the game an Xbox exclusive if the Activision Blizzard deal is completed. Microsoft's latest statement makes no mention of what happens after those "several more years," but it's clear that the company is willing to guarantee Call of Duty on PlayStation for a longer period of time than it is legally required to.
Part of that commitment will be to assuage regulators' concerns about Microsoft's $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Sony and Microsoft lawyers have been arguing about the significance of Call of Duty in documents submitted to Brazil's Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE), and it's clear that it's a sticking point.
Sony claims that other developers would struggle to create a franchise that rivals Activision's Call of Duty, and that it stands out "as a gaming category on its own." Microsoft claims it isn't as significant as its competitor claims. The truth lies somewhere in the middle. In these documents to CADE, Microsoft also argued that not distributing games like Call of Duty at rival console stores "would simply not be profitable" for the company.
Microsoft claims that a strategy of not distributing Activision Blizzard games on competing consoles would be profitable only if the games could attract a large number of players to the Xbox ecosystem, resulting in revenue to compensate for losses from not selling these titles on competing consoles.
Concerns about Xbox exclusivity for Call of Duty have also grown since Microsoft acquired Bethesda last year. Microsoft promised to honour existing Sony contracts for Deathloop on PlayStation, but instead made Redfall and Starfield Xbox and PC exclusives.
Fears about Call of Duty competition have also prompted the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to conduct a more thorough investigation into Microsoft's Activision Blizzard deal. The CMA has launched a phase 2 investigation, in which it will appoint an independent panel to determine whether Microsoft's control over games such as Call of Duty and World of Warcraft is harming competitors.
The rivalry between Xbox and PlayStation over Call of Duty has lasted as long as the franchise itself. Sony famously secured a deal for extra Call of Duty downloadable content for PlayStation fans in 2015, after Xbox had been the traditional home for Call of Duty. That battle will undoubtedly continue as lawyers for Microsoft and Sony argue about Call of Duty and regulators try to determine just how important it is.