Even though Activision Blizzard is on its way to becoming an Xbox corporation, Call of Duty’s future isn’t yet sealed. According to a new source, Call of Duty will continue to be distributed on PlayStation for the next few years.
According to Bloomberg, the Call of Duty business had already committed to making the next few Call of Duty games available across all platforms, including PlayStation, before Xbox announced its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Call of Duty 2022, Call of Duty 2023, and Warzone 2 are all scheduled for 2023, according to Jason Schreier. After then, though, the future of Call of Duty on platforms other than Xbox and Windows is less certain. Last week, Xbox head Phil Spencer stated that he intended to “respect all current agreements” between Activision and Sony during a call with Sony executives.
When Microsoft bought ZeniMax Media, it confirmed its obligations to previous deals, releasing Arkane’s Deathloop and Tango Gameworks’ upcoming Ghostwire: Tokyo as PlayStation 5 exclusives. However, Bethesda’s Starfield will be unique to the Xbox system.
According to sources familiar with the Activision contract, Xbox will keep its promises to distribute annual Call of Duty games on PlayStation for at least the next two years. However, after the deal closes in 2022, Microsoft will look into the franchise’s future.
This includes deciding whether or not to stick to the annual release schedule established by Call of Duty over the years. Activision executives are said to be talking about spreading out new releases.
The implications of the Activision Xbox deal will reverberate for years, but given how Microsoft handled the Bethesda acquisition, the signals point to Xbox exclusivity, but experts are divided on the subject. Meanwhile, Spencer is looking into some of Activision’s long-dead brands that could be revived.
