PlayStation gamers were left stunned and dismayed to hear Sony had traded Bethesda, Crash Bandicoot and others for 10 years of Call Of Duty.
Microsoft and Activision Blizzard may finally have concluded their takeover battle, yet many fans remain disgruntled by what transpired.
Since 2003, Call of Duty has become one of the most successful video game franchises ever. No doubt its immense commercial and popular success are among many reasons Microsoft spent $68.7 billion purchasing Activision Blizzard.
Microsoft has repeatedly stated its intent for Call of Duty to remain multiplatform; even offering Nintendo an exclusive 10-year deal was enough for Sony. Sony was fearful that Microsoft may pull Call of Duty away from PlayStation and keep it exclusively under their green brand umbrella.
Microsoft would be setting itself up for failure had this scenario transpired; they have previously acknowledged it would not be profitable to restrict Call of Duty exclusively to Xbox, even if that meant keeping its most potent rival out.
As soon as Microsoft took their initial steps to acquire Activision Blizzard back in January 2022, many expected for it to have been complete by now – though we still have some way to go until everything is finalised. One significant roadblock (other than PlayStation boss Jim Ryan sabotaging things) has been FTC and CMA attempts at blocking it as both US and UK market regulators attempt to prevent their merger.
Microsoft recently won its court case with the FTC and took one step towards finalising their takeover plan. We can only wait and see how the CMA responds now.
After Microsoft’s win at court, Xbox head honcho, Phil Spencer announced that an exclusive agreement has been struck between himself and PlayStation in order to keep Call of Duty exclusive to PlayStation’s blue brand. Details such as contract length remain undisclosed at this time.
No mention was made of other Activision franchises such as Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Overwatch or Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater by Activision during their conference call, nor of Bethesda titles that Microsoft previously purchased for $7.5 billion from ZeniMax Media parent company ZeniMax.
Unfortunately, Call of Duty was only mentioned as part of this “binding agreement,” possibly as it only includes this popular first-person game series in this particular contract agreement.
Phil Spencer sent an email to Jim Ryan proposing a 10-year agreement between Activision Blizzard games (CoD, Overwatch, Crash Spyro etc) and PlayStation. But this offer was declined by Ryan who instead proposed only CoD being played there and has no deal for other classic Microsoft franchises such as Crash, Spyro Diablo Overwatch Tony Hawk etc being in this agreement anymore, says Redditor olorin9_alex. This new offer only deals for CoD while classic franchises such as Crash Spyro Diablo Overwatch Tony Hawk etc aren’t part of it,” claimed Redditor Joeyrvn with apparent shock at being cut out from all their classic Microsoft franchises being offered up till 2023/24/24/7 gamervn exclaimed Joeyrvn before adding: ‘Good rid of those classic Microsoft franchises like Crash, Spyro Diablo, Overwatch Tony Hawk. These won’t even feature in it”! Joeyrvn was more direct: “Those won’t even considered in it”, said Joeyrvn, adding;
“I could care less about Call of Duty,” another user stated, as they don’t play that type of game. Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Dishonored Doom & Wolfenstein would be my dream titles to gain access to; unfortunately that will likely never come about.”
Therefore, once Microsoft officially acquires Activision Blizzard and you want to explore games published by companies other than Call of Duty, now may be an opportune moment to purchase an Xbox Series X|S.
