Sony e Microsoft have reached a historic agreement for keep the Call of Duty franchise on PlayStation. Following the announcement of the proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard from Microsoft in January 2022, the matter was not entirely obvious. Phil SpencerCEO of Microsoft Gaming, said that Sony and Microsoft have signed a “binding agreement” to ensure that CoD is present on all consoles.
Call of Duty, Sony and Microsoft sign a 10-year contract
On Twitter, Spencer wrote: “We are delighted to announce that Microsoft and @PlayStation have signed a binding agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. We look forward to a future where gamers around the world have more choices to play their favorite games.“
Microsoft’s initial announcement did not mention a specific duration for Call of Duty to be on PlayStation. However, Kari Perezhead of global communications at Xbox, confirmed to The Verge that the deal is valid for 10 years. It is important to note that the agreement applies to Call of Duty only and does not include other Activision titles.
This 10-year agreement between Sony and Microsoft is similar to the 10-year agreement previously signed between Microsoft and Nintendo. However, it should be noted that the agreement is exclusively for Call of Duty and does not involve the agreements that Microsoft has entered into with other cloud gaming platforms, such as Nvidia, to port Xbox/Activision games to competing services.
The 10-year agreement between Sony and Microsoft for Call of Duty on PlayStation comes after 18 months of offers and discussions. But the question of the definitive acquisition of Activision Blizzard still remains to be resolved. In fact, after Microsoft’s first victory, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has declared its intention to appeal.