In a seismic shift for the gaming industry, Microsoft today announced its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Activision Blizzard is one of the world’s biggest video game companies. And this new deal is worth an incredible $68.7 billion. An eye-watering sum by all accounts. It also raises huge questions about Activision Blizzard’s numerous franchises. But everyone’s immediate attention is now on Call of Duty. And we’re all asking one question: “Will Call of Duty be Xbox exclusive?”
Update – 20th January 2022 (original article follows)
Phil Spencer, Head of Xbox, confirmed on 20th January 2022 that it is Microsoft’s desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation. So, there we have it – CoD will remain a multiplatform series once Microsoft acquires Activision Blizzard.
Will Call of Duty become Xbox exclusive?
It is not yet known whether Call of Duty will be an Xbox exclusive series. But it’s certainly possible – and likely. What we do know right now is that Microsoft is in the process of buying Activision Blizzard. The purchase will include popular franchises such as Call of Duty, Warcraft, Candy Crush, Tony Hawk, Diablo, Overwatch, Spyro, Hearthstone, Guitar Hero, Crash Bandicoot, StarCraft and many more.
Microsoft has explained that Activision Blizzard will continue to operate independently until the deal closes. But once it has, they aim to “offer as many Activision Blizzard games as we can within Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass, both new titles and games from Activision Blizzard’s incredible catalog.”
In 2020, Microsoft bought ZeniMax. That meant that Bethesda Softworks came under the Xbox umbrella. And so did their Fallout and The Elder Scrolls franchises. Microsoft soon confirmed that future games in those series would be exclusive to Xbox. According to Bloomberg, exclusivity is certainly on the cards for Activision Blizzard franchises (including CoD): “Microsoft plans to keep making some of Activision’s games for PlayStation consoles but will also keep some content exclusive to Xbox”, they reported. However, it may not be quite so simple to make CoD exclusive to Xbox. Games industry analyst David Cole recently said to gamesindustry.biz that Microsoft may have trouble restricting Call of Duty to Xbox: “The big issue is if COD becomes a Microsoft exclusive. Right now, I don’t think [it will]. For one thing, it would be hard to get it past regulators if they want to lock the competition out.”
Does Sony have a say?
Sony recently commented on the deal and its possible ramifications, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. Their thoughts are quite clear: “We expect that Microsoft will abide by contractual agreements and continue to ensure Activision games are multiplatform”, a Sony spokesperson said.
When will we know?
This deal is still some way off from being closed – with the target date being June 2023. It’s unlikely we’ll hear anything related to specific Activision Blizzard games and exclusivity until the acquisition is done. Of course, there’s lots of money to be made by keeping games like CoD on PlayStation. Gaming journalist Jeff Grubb was quick to tweet his belief that “Warzone will remain multiplatform”. But he added: “main Call of Duty games [will] go exclusive.” However, it’s important to remember that this is all speculation right now and we may not have a clear picture for a while yet.
What are your thoughts on the big news of Microsoft purchasing Activision Blizzard? Let us know in the comment section below and don’t forget to check out our other gaming articles…
