The war is over, at least for now, as Sony and Microsoft have entered into a 10-year deal to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation. The franchise has been a major point of contention between the two as Microsoft works towards its plan of purchasing Activision Blizzard, the publisher behind the Call of Duty franchise. Microsoft recently cleared what is perhaps its biggest hurdle yet by successfully winning its case against the FTC last week but it still has to get past U.K. regulators who just granted it a five-day extension for its hearing.
Even though it may still be a bit too early to celebrate as the war is over between Sony and Microsoft this new deal is likely to play a role with U.K. regulators allowing the $69 billion Activision acquisition to move forward. Meanwhile heads from both companies have taken to social media to announce the milestone agreement.
From Day One of this acquisition, we’ve been committed to addressing the concerns of regulators, platform and game developers, and consumers. Even after we cross the finish line for this deal’s approval, we will remain focused on ensuring that Call of Duty remains available on… https://t.co/hMWjC58wRi
— Brad Smith (@BradSmi) July 16, 2023
It has been confirmed that this deal only relates to the Call of Duty franchise which also mirrors a similar deal that Microsoft recently signed with Nintendo back in December and another it signed with NVIDIA to bring the franchise to GeForce Now. Although the deal with NVIDIA includes other Activision games while the one with Sony only pertains to COD. Clearly, Microsoft is attempting to show signs of good faith in keeping the franchise non-exclusive to Xbox, which is something that Sony has expressed concerns over.
Per The Verge:
“While Microsoft’s initial announcement doesn’t mention 10 years for Call of Duty on PlayStation, Kari Perez, head of global communications at Xbox, confirmed the 10-year commitment to The Verge. Perez later confirmed to The Verge that the deal is only for Call of Duty, though. That makes the deal similar to a 10-year agreement between Microsoft and Nintendo, but not the various deals Microsoft has struck with Nvidia and other cloud gaming platforms to bring Call of Duty and other Xbox / Activision games to rival services.”