As Microsoft is acquiring publisher Activision Blizzard in one of the biggest acquisition deals in the video game industry, it has announced that it will continue to offer Activision Blizzard games on competing platforms like Sony’s PlayStation.
This includes one of the biggest franchises under the Activision banner: Call Of Duty.
“Microsoft will continue to make Call of Duty and other popular Activision Blizzard titles available on PlayStation through the term of any existing agreement with Activision,” in a blog post on the Microsoft site by Brad Smith, president and vice-chair at Microsoft.
“And we have committed to Sony that we will also make them available on PlayStation beyond the existing agreement and into the future so that Sony fans can continue to enjoy the games they love.”
This means that not only will Microsoft honour any existing deals ActiBlizz has with PlayStation to release games on that platform, but also extend well into the future.
Microsoft also expressed interest to offer something similar to Nintendo, so that multi-platform games from the publisher continue to be so despite the new ownership under a rival console maker.
Microsoft continues to operate Minecraft over multiple platforms since its purchase of developer Mojang. Microsoft has also so far honoured the previous exclusivity deals that Bethesda signed with PlayStation. Deathloop remains a PS5 console exclusive (for now) and Ghostwire Tokyo is set for a PS5 console exclusive release in March.
However, Bethesda Game Studio’s upcoming RPG Starfield will be an Xbox console exclusive, leaving ire to PlayStation fans who are a fan of the developer’s past works which includes The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim and Fallout 4.
This commitment is made as the company has started the regulatory process in acquiring Activision Blizzard proper. ActiBlizz was the biggest independent 3rd-party video games publisher, which did raise some eyebrows when the deal was announced. Microsoft is insistent on showing this acquisition isn’t about locking away exclusive games, but we’ll see if they can fully walk the talk.
Source: Microsoft