While Microsoft awaits approval for its acquisition of Activision Blizzard Phil Spencer, speaking on The Verge’s Decoder podcast, said that Microsoft was open to committing that the Call of Duty series would remain on PlayStation for a longer period than currently agreed upon.
Spencer noted in the interview that “This idea that we would write a contract that says the word ‘forever’ in it, I think, is a little bit silly.” Continuing he said, “but to make a longer-term commitment that Sony would be comfortable with, [that] regulators would be comfortable with, I have no issue with that at all.”
With UK and EU regulators expanding their investigation into the acquisition deal Spencer clarified his statement saying “We think Call of Duty will be on PlayStation as long as players want to play Call of Duty on PlayStation. And that’s not a competitive threat against PlayStation, that’s just a pragmatic way of looking at it.”
Speaking on the possibility of a streaming-only version of Call of Duty on PlayStation, Spencer said that if this was the case it would be “native Call of Duty on PlayStation, not linked to them having to carry Game Pass.” Following on from this Spencer added, “If they want a streaming version of Call of Duty we could do that as well, just like we do on our own consoles.”
Spencer continued by stating “It is the Call of Duty Modern Warfare II, doing great on PlayStation, doing great on Xbox, the next game… native, on the platform, not having to subscribe to Game Pass. Sony does not have to take Game Pass on their platform to make that happen. There’s nothing hidden. We want to continue to ship Call of Duty on PlayStation, without any kind of weird ‘aha, I figured out the gotcha’.”
The continued expansion of the UK’s Competiton and Markets Authority’s investigation into the Activision Blizzard acquisition was welcomed by Sony in a statement saying “by giving Microsoft control of Activision games like Call of Duty, this deal would have major negative implications for gamers and the future of the gaming industry.” However, in a response sent to VGC, a company spokesperson for Microsoft said “it makes zero business sense for Microsoft to remove Call of Duty from PlayStation given its market-leading console position.”
Time will show how the acquisition pans out but Spencer’s comments might prove to be more acceptable for Sony as it would provide more time for the company to adjust.
Source: VGC