Following the shocking news that Microsoft has secured a buyout of Activision Blizzard, PlayStation players are understandably worried about what this means for the future of Call of Duty on Sony platforms.
Seemingly out of nowhere, Microsoft has announced a huge takeover of Activision Blizzard, sending the gaming world into a frenzy. The deal, worth an eye-watering $70 billion, makes Microsoft the third-largest gaming company in the world.
While the Xbox community will no doubt be delighted with the acquisition, fans of Activision Blizzard games on PlayStation will have concerns. As was the case when Microsoft purchased Fallout publisher Bethesda, players on Sony platforms are worried about the future of their favorite IPs.
Arguably the series that players will be most eager to hear about is Call of Duty. With 2022’s game already deep in development, PlayStation stans will be concerned that they’ll have to buy an Xbox or PC to enjoy the latest CoD installment.
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Will Call of Duty 2022 be removed from PlayStation?
The good news is that as things stand, it appears that Call of Duty will continue to release on PlayStation platforms as it always has.
In a now viral tweet, Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, confirmed Microsoft’s “desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation”.
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
Additionally, in a blog post confirming the Activision Blizzard deal, Microsoft outlined that the buyout aimed to “bring the joy and community of gaming to everyone, across every device.”
This message was hammered home further later in the same post. It said, “We’re investing deeply in world-class content, community and the cloud to usher in a new era of gaming that puts players and creators first and makes gaming safe, inclusive and accessible to all.”
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Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has also hinted that CoD will be safe. “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 said in an interview.
In the days following the announcement of the deal, Sony looked to reassure its player base that they will be looked after in the coming years. “We expect that Microsoft will abide by contractual agreements and continue to ensure Activision games are multiplatform,” a Sony spokesperson said to the Wall Street Journal.
Activision address the state of Call of Duty’s future on PlayStation
The takeover isn’t set to complete until 2023, so any ramifications of the deal won’t be felt until then. But in an open Q&A, one Activision Blizzard employee said that the publisher have no intention of disrupting the status quo with its existing games.
“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,” they said.
The Call of Duty series has been at home on PlayStation for the better part of 20 years, so players will be relieved to hear that this probably won’t be changing anytime soon. Given how many users there are across Sony platforms, it seems wise that Microsoft has chosen not to make CoD an Xbox and PC exclusive.
However, we will have to wait and see if there are any exclusive benefits to playing Call of Duty on Microsoft-owned platforms going forward. Betas and preorder bonuses have often gone live on certain consoles early, so it’s safe to assume that Xbox will have first access from now on.
Of course, this is still a developing story, so be sure to head over to our official Call of Duty page to stay on top of the latest news.
