In the midst of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, there have been repeated questions around whether or not games like Call of Duty would continue to appear on competing platforms. As the conclusion of the business deal draws near, the Xbox manufacturer has confirmed that it signed a deal with PlayStation and Sony to ensure Call of Duty would remain on PlayStation platforms for the time being.
In a statement to The Verge, Head of Xbox Phil Spencer said the agreement was put into place in January, and said it would guarantee Call of Duty games would appear on PlayStation 5 for now, though the “at least several more years,” does provide the company some wiggle room to make the series an Xbox and Windows exclusive one day, should it feel so compelled. This comes after the company said Call of Duty would remain multiplatform earlier this year, but now it sounds like there’s an unspoken timeline in the works as to how long this will go on.
“In January, we provided a signed agreement to Sony 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 well beyond typical gaming industry agreements,” Spencer told The Verge.
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Conversations around platform exclusivity have gotten much more frequent these days due to Microsoft’s acquisitions of both Activision Blizzard and Bethesda, two major, formerly third-party studios with mass appeal franchises under their belt. So while the far off future seems foggy, it does sound like Call of Duty will remain multiplatform for the time being.
Microsoft’s acquisition comes after Activision Blizzard has been dealing with public scrutiny regarding its workplace culture, which resulted in a California lawsuit claiming it had fostered a “frat boy” culture that was discriminatory and unsafe for women employees.
