Now that Microsoft has announced their agreement to acquire Activision Blizzard, it seems like the deal will make sure PlayStation exclusive content in their games ends after Call of Duty: Vanguard. Activision games will continue to be released on PlayStation consoles in the future, but some content will be kept back for Xbox gamers instead.
Will Activision Games be Exclusive to Xbox?
Microsoft Gaming’s new CEO Phil Spencer confirmed to Bloomberg that they will not be pulling all Activision titles away from PlayStation: “I’ll just say to players out there who are playing Activision Blizzard games on Sony’s platform: It’s not our intent to pull communities away from that platform and we remained committed to that”. However, “a person familiar with the company’s thinking” also said that while Activision will continue to release games for PlayStation consoles, some content will be exclusive to Xbox. This may also mean that some future Activision Blizzard games are also exclusive to Xbox.
Admittedly this should not be a surprise given what has happened so far with Bethesda after Microsoft acquired their parent company Zenimax Media. While existing PlayStation timed exclusivity windows were honored with titles like Deathloop and the upcoming Ghostwire: Tokyo, some future titles have been confirmed to be exclusive like Starfield and perhaps even The Elder Scrolls VI. Activision Blizzard franchises like Call of Duty, Tony Hawk, Diablo, Overwatch, Spyro, Guitar Hero, and Crash Bandicoot all have quite a history on PlayStation, but they may not feature in PlayStation’s future anymore.
Spencer also confirmed to Seeking Alpha that the two companies had started having acquisition talks at the end of 2021, and this could explain why PlayStation exclusive content in Call of Duty: Vanguard was fairly minimal when compared to previous years. Vanguard has so far had a disappointing reception with lower sales than expected and accusations of poor leadership fueling the issues.
Make sure to have your say on whether Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard could be bad news for Sony in our reader’s opinion.
