PlayStation CEO claims Xbox only offered three more years of CoD on Sony consoles
The CEO of PlayStation claims that Xbox’s proposed plan to keep Call of Duty on their consoles would only last three years following the current deal between Sony and the FPS franchise.
At the start of 2022, it was announced that Microsoft would be buying Call of Duty publisher Activision in a major deal for the video game industry. Despite the deal being announced in January of 2022, the world is still waiting for the deal to go through.
The purchase has not been made official as of yet and it seems to be held up by concerns from the Competition and Markets Authority or CMA. The worry is that with too much power Microsoft could damage the industry.
One of the ways Microsoft could do so is by refusing to give competitors access to Activision’s top games, including Call of Duty. The CMA are looking to ensure that this exclusive access cannot occur.
Up until this point, Microsoft have been adamant about continuing to release Call of Duty titles on Sony consoles. They confirmed on multiple occasions that PlayStation players would receive the same Call of Duty on the same day as Xbox players. However, PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan is claiming otherwise.
Activision and Sony have a current deal in place that delivers additional content to PlayStation players. This deal is expected to include the next three CoD titles including Modern Warfare 2. Despite this deal running out eventually, Xbox provided Sony with an agreement to keep CoD on PlayStation for “at least several more years.”
Initially, fans of the CoD franchise were happy to see the two companies potentially find a middle ground and bring Call of Duty to the greatest amount of people possible. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case as PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan sheds some light on what exactly “several more years” suggests.
In a statement to GamesIndustry.biz, Ryan claimed that the offer from Xbox only included three additional years following their current deal with Activision. Ryan goes on to call Xbox’s proposal “inadequate on many levels.”
Although Xbox seemed adamant about keeping Call of Duty on PlayStation, Ryan’s statement reveals otherwise. A short-term deal of three years would leave the door open for Xbox to make Call of Duty an exclusive down the line, and it’s easy to understand Ryan’s concern.
We’ll have to wait and see what happens to the future of the Call of Duty franchise as the story develops and Microsoft’s deal to acquire Activision moves forward.
For more on the future of the franchise, here’s everything you need to know about the Call of Duty Next event.
Image Credit: Activision / PlayStation / Xbox