Sony and Microsoft have signed a Call of Duty agreement. Microsoft will continue to release Call of Duty games on PlayStation consoles after the tech giant acquired Activision. Microsoft previously said that it will continue to release CoD on other platforms.
Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, reported on Sunday Microsoft and Sony have signed a “binding agreement” to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation following its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. It is not clear how long this agreement will last. Microsoft previously signed ten-year agreements with Nintendo and several cloud gaming services, among others.
The agreement ends a battle between the two companies. Sony has long resisted Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision. The latter has promised several times in the past that CoD will not be released on other platforms, including PlayStation. Sony has so far refused to sign an agreement with Microsoft to continue releasing Call of Duty on PlayStation consoles. The PlayStation maker wanted to stop the takeover.
We are pleased to announce that Microsoft and @Play Station signed a binding agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation following the acquisition by Activision Blizzard. We look forward to a future where gamers around the world have more options to play their favorite games.
– Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) July 16, 2023
Sony has said during competition investigations and lawsuits that Sony fears Call of Duty will become an Xbox exclusive. Sony has also expressed concerns that Microsoft may deliberately misrepresent the PlayStation version of Call of Duty. PlayStation president Jim Ryan previously wrote in an internal email that he’s not afraid of CoD becoming an Xbox exclusive. This was evident from documents released in a court case relating to the planned takeover.
Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision has been under pressure for a long time, but it’s increasingly likely that a deal could happen. The US Federal Trade Commission attempted to block the takeover by a initial listing While his investigation is still ongoing, but he lost a court case because of it. The Federal Trade Commission has appealed this ruling.
Britain’s Capital Markets Authority, which previously blocked the takeover, has also been open to new concessions since that lawsuit concluded. The Capital Market Authority may conduct a new investigation into the acquisition. The regulator had a deadline of July 18th to issue a final ruling, but recently decided to push it back to August 28th. This follows reports that Microsoft is planning new concessions to the UK. For example, a company can sell cloud gaming rights within that country.
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