Microsoft Gaming CEO and Xbox head Phil Spencer reassure the public once more that Playstation will keep getting Call of Duty games if the acquisition goes through.
In a recent podcast on the Same Brain YouTube channel, Phil Spencer once again assures worried players that Call of Duty will still ship to PlayStation. Spencer reiterated that Microsoft has no plans to take Call of Duty from PlayStation. He says that it is not their intent to do so. He follows this up by saying that “as long as there's a PlayStation out there to ship to”, they will ship the game. Spencer brings up Minecraft, a game that Microsft bought back in 2014. Spencer explains that what they will do with Playstation will be similar to what they did with Minecraft. Microsoft expanded the platforms players can play Minecraft on. Right now, players can play Minecraft on PC, Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo Switch, and mobile.
This is not the first time that Spencer had to alleviate people's worries about the Activision Blizzard acquisition that began back in January. The most vocal about the acquisition was Sony, who worries that Microsoft will turn Call of Duty into an exclusive. Microsoft just last month assured people that Call of Duty will still be on PlayStation “for at least several more years”. Sony did not take too kindly to this. Sony CEO Jim Ryan called Spencer's statement “inadequate on so many levels.”
The review of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard is still ongoing to this day. A deadline of March 1, 2023, however, is already in place for the final decision. Saudi Arabia and Brazil already approved of the acquisition, however, UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) still has its reservations. They brought up Sony's points about the acquisition. They are worried that Microsoft getting control of such a “powerful catalog” would tip the favor in their favor. Microsoft, however, responded by saying that CMA adopted Sony's complaints without proper review. They also mentioned that Playstation has a higher player base and a higher number of exclusive titles. As such, even if they made it exclusive, it would not hurt them as much as they say it will. Other than that, Spencer said that making it an exclusive would “tarnish both the Call of Duty and Xbox brands.”
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