Microsoft offers 10-year deal to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation

A few weeks ago, it was reported that Microsoft offered Sony a ten-year deal to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation. While neither company had confirmed this at the time, Microsoft has now made this public, and the company plans to formalise this with regulators too. 

Regulators around the world are scrutinising Microsoft's Activision Blizzard buyout and naturally, as one of the biggest and most successful IP in gaming, Call of Duty has been at the centre of the discussion. In recent months, Microsoft has said publicly that it plans to keep Call of Duty multiplatform, and now the company is putting that in writing.

In a post on the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft President, Brad Smith, confirmed that Microsoft has offered Sony a 10-year contract, which would ensure that all future Call of Duty games come to PlayStation on the same day as Xbox. Microsoft is also prepared to make legal agreements to ensure the same treatment for other platforms too.

When Microsoft first announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard, a lot of people assumed the big prize would be Call of Duty exclusivity for Xbox. However, as Microsoft puts it, doing so would be “economically irrational” as a vital part of Activision's revenue comes from sales on PlayStation. Also with cross-play in place, removing Call of Duty from a platform would be “disastrous to the Call of Duty franchise and Xbox itself”.

Smith's comments follow on from a couple of other big announcements. For starters, Microsoft has made it clear that it is willing to fight for the acquisition in court and would go as far as taking on the FTC should the US regulator file a lawsuit to block the deal. Additionally, the CWA, one or the largest unions in the US, representing hundreds of thousands of workers, has backed the deal. This is something that will assuredly be taken into account as the FTC continues to deliberate whether to approve the deal or not.

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KitGuru Says: These next few months will be critical for Microsoft as it continues to work through the regulatory process. 

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