Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard could make Call of Duty an Xbox exclusive. Xbox has offered a three-year commitment to keep the game series on Sony’s platform, but PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan says that isn’t enough, as regulatory pressure on Microsoft increases.
Microsoft is still in the process of acquiring Activision Blizzard, and while regulators are cracking down on Microsoft, PlayStation is turning up some heat of its own as well.
Among the largest concerns regulators have expressed was the idea that certain significant game series — particularly the Call of Duty franchise, one of the largest games series on the planet — might become platform-exclusive to Xbox as a result of the acquisition. To help get ahead of this question, Xbox has said in multiple settings and ways that Call of Duty will remain available on PlayStation.
While the first statement only said that the series would remain multi-platform for the remainder of the current contract between Activision and PlayStation parent company Sony.
