Sony has mentioned its upcoming PlayStation consoles and how potentially losing access to the Call of Duty franchise would have a significant impact on its profits in one of its most recent CMA responses to Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard (noticed by games industry analyst Piers Harding-Rolls). The small bit of text confirms that Sony has a new PlayStation scheduled for release in the future, potentially by 2027 or a little later, even though it does not mention a specific release date due to a redaction in it.
“Microsoft has offered to continue making Activision’s games available on PlayStation only until 2027,” Sony’s comments read. “Likewise, in public comments just on October 26, Microsoft said that it plans to offer Call of Duty on PlayStation only as long as it makes sense. A period until 2027–or some other (possibly shorter) time that Microsoft unilaterally determines makes sense to Microsoft is badly inadequate. By the time that SIE launched the next generation of its PlayStation console (which is likely to occur around REDACTED), it would have lost access to Call of Duty and other Activision titles, making it extremely vulnerable to consumer switching and subsequent degradation in its competitiveness.”
The newest model, the PlayStation 5, recently celebrated its second birthday. PlayStation consoles normally have a lifespan of 6-7 years. It’s also not unusual for Sony to be concentrating on the PS6 console at this point in the PS5 lifetime because both Xbox and Nintendo constantly research and create new consoles.
Sony has been among the most vocal opponents of Microsoft’s acquisition, which it describes in its response that was made public by the UK CMA as “a game-changer that poses a threat to an industry enjoyed by hundreds of millions of consumers.” Sony has been preoccupied with the possibility of losing access to the popular Call of Duty franchise, but Phil Spender, the CEO of Microsoft Gaming, has consistently played down these worries by stating that Microsoft is more interested in Activision’s mobile gaming library.
In October, Spencer noted that the company plans to treat Call of Duty like Minecraft, and he responded to criticism from Sony concerning Microsoft’s future ownership of Call of Duty. “The idea that Activision is all about Call of Duty on console is a construct that might get created by our console competitor,” Spencer said.
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