Fear not PlayStation players, your precious Call of Duty is safe… for now.
With the news of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, one of the talking points heading the conversation around it was potential exclusivity of games from the latter. Due to the exclusivity of Bethesda’s game on Xbox consoles after that acquisition, it makes sense that this could be a possibility.
The possibility of Crash Bandicoot being exclusive to Xbox consoles has been making the rounds as the series has been historically known for its exclusivity on the original PlayStation console. While its original developer Naughty Dog is a subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment, Crash Bandicoot was originally produced by Universal Interactive which later became known as Vivendi Games, and Vivendi merged with Activision in 2007. This, of course, means that the new owner of Activision will own the rights to Crash Bandicoot, and that owner will be Microsoft.
However, one of the main series of focus in this conversation is Call of Duty, a series that has been a multi-platform game since it came to be in 2003. Despite the hubbub, it seems as if all is well for now on this topic after CEO of Microsoft Gaming posted a tweet this morning announcing that the series would continue to be multi-platform.
Had good calls this week with leaders at Sony. I confirmed our intent to honor all existing agreements upon acquisition of Activision Blizzard and our desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation. Sony is an important part of our industry, and we value our relationship.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) January 20, 2022
Call of Duty fans can rest easy for now as it looks like the game isn’t going anywhere for the time being. ‘The time being’ is important to note here though, as Spencer’s careful wording could imply that Xbox will honour existing agreements but may change their mind in future. On the other hand, it would probably be for the best to keep Call of Duty, a series with quite the passionate fanbase, as accessible as they can.
In the meantime, co-developers of Call of Duty: Warzone are on their seventh week of striking after 12 contractors at Raven Software were laid off in December, alongside the poor working conditions reported by the development team. Said team has also reportedly received ‘radio silence’ in terms of their demands.
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