PlayStation vs Xbox Rivalry Heats Up as Sony Reminds Microsoft of Contractual Obligations

Microsoft made history by pulling off one of the most significant deals within the gaming community. They have acquired Activision Blizzard, the parent company of franchises like Call of Duty, for a record sum of $70 billion.

After this takeover, it is evident that Microsoft will now oversee the development and publishing of the Call of Duty franchise, which has always been available as a multi-platform game.

However, many including PlayStation’s parent company Sony have raised concerns over Call of Duty deviating away as a multi-platform game after this acquisition. Let’s look at Sony’s reaction to this new acquisition deal.

Sony reacts for the first time after Microsoft completes the Activision acquisition.

The Activision acquisition by Microsoft has raised concern over the exclusivity of franchises such as Call of Duty. The COD franchise had always remained multi-platform and has been available for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation users. It is also important to note that Activision had an exclusivity agreement with PlayStation, due to which the Special Ops Survival mode in Modern Warfare (2019) was exclusive to PS4. Furthermore, Black Ops Cold War (2020) included a mode called Onslaught, which was also exclusive to PlayStation.

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Sony is in particular concerned about this acquisition as it expects Microsoft to honor these contractual agreements and let the games remain multi-platform. Answering these very questions raised, Phil Spencer from Microsoft says, “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.”

Spencer had made similar comments during the acquisition of Zenimax, Bethesda’s parent company. Microsoft may have honored the exclusivity deal for existing games such as Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo for PlayStation, however, their future plans seem quite different this time. They have confirmed that the next big games from Bethesda such as Starfield, Redfall, and The Elder Scrolls 6 will be PC and Xbox exclusives.

As of now, it is too early to predict Microsoft’s intentions with the Activision franchises after this acquisition. However, it is very much likely that the COD franchise might soon see a spell of becoming an Xbox and PC exclusive under Microsoft.

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What do you think of this latest acquisition by Microsoft? Let us know in the comments.