The million dollar question ever since Microsoft announced their agreement to acquire Activision is whether we would continue to see games like Call of Duty or Crash Bandicoot on PlayStation consoles in the future. Sony has now made an official statement confirming that some games will have to remain on PS5 and PS4 for now because of existing contracts.
Sony’s Comments on Xbox Exclusivity
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Sony said: “We expect that Microsoft will abide by contractual agreements and continue to ensure Activision games are multiplatform”. This will likely include games like Call of Duty for which Sony has the marketing rights and deals for exclusive content, although the future likelihood of PlayStation exclusive content for Call of Duty is slim. This is a similar situation the two companies encountered when Microsoft took over Bethesda, with the timed PS5 exclusivity agreements being honored for Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo.
Microsoft Gaming’s CEO Phil Spencer had already said it was “not our intent to pull communities away from [PlayStation] and we remained committed to that.” However, there will surely be some titles exclusive to the Xbox consoles. In an interview with the Washington Post, Spencer did discuss how they would “make sure we have resources to work on franchises that I love from my childhood and that the teams really want to get”. This will mean removing developers who are currently supporting the Call of Duty franchise and letting them loose on franchises like King’s Quest, Guitar Hero and even HeXen.
Activision also released a statement via the US SEC that said “We will honor all existing commitments post close. As with Microsoft’s acquisition of Minecraft, we have no intent to remove any content from platforms where it exists today. […] Activision Blizzard’s games exist on a variety of platforms today, and we plan to continue supporting those communities moving forward.” They later confirmed they couldn’t see this news affecting their current pipeline of games, meaning Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV are still expected to come to PS4 and/or PS5.
In other news, the PlayStation Wrap Up 2021 is live. Some players are having issues getting the site to work although we suggested a possible fix. Elsewhere, Hogwarts Legacy has been reconfirmed for a 2022 launch despite rumors of development difficulties pushing it into 2023.
