Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

On September 3, Spencer, head of Microsoft's Xbox game console business, promised that even if the company's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, a well-known game developer, was approved, the call of Duty series would remain on Sony's PlayStation console for "several years".

Earlier this year, Phil Spencer, Microsoft's games division and chief executive of Xbox, promised in a letter to Jim Ryan, head of PlayStation, that if Microsoft's $68.7 billion acquisition of the developer of call of Duty was approved by regulators, the game would not immediately disappear from PlayStation.

"in January, we signed an agreement with Sony to ensure that the features and content of call of Duty on PlayStation will remain the same as in the past, at least for a few more years on top of Sony's current contract with Activision Blizzard, which goes far beyond the usual gaming industry agreement," Spencer said in an interview.

No one knows how long call of Duty will last on PlayStation. Earlier this year, it was reported that Microsoft had promised that PlayStation would continue to release call of Duty for "at least the next two years", meaning that Sony's franchise agreement for the call of Duty series could expire in 2024. Then, in February, Microsoft publicly promised that "beyond the existing agreement, PlayStation can continue to run the call of Duty game in the future."

Fans are still debating whether Microsoft will technically make call of Duty an exclusive game for Xbox if it makes a deal with Activision Blizzard. Microsoft's latest statement does not say what will happen "in a few years' time", but what is clear is that Microsoft is willing to keep call of Duty on PlayStation for longer.

Part of the pledge is also designed to allay concerns among regulators, who are reviewing Microsoft's $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. In documents submitted to Brazilian regulators, lawyers for Sony and Microsoft have been arguing about the importance of "call of duty", which is clearly the crux of the problem.

Sony claims that it is difficult for other developers to develop games comparable to call of Duty like Activision Blizzard, which has "become a separate category" in many games. But Microsoft doesn't think the game is as important as Sony says. Microsoft also said in a filing with Brazilian regulators that it was "simply not profitable" for it to keep games such as call of Duty off competitors' consoles.

Microsoft says this strategy will only be profitable if games attract a large number of players into the Xbox ecosystem and generate revenue, while selling these games on other consoles will generate more revenue.

After Microsoft bought game developer Bethesda last year, there were growing fears that call of Duty would become Xbox's exclusive game. Microsoft has promised to keep Sony PlayStation's existing contract agreement for the game death cycle, but continues to work to make Scarlet fall and Starry Land exclusive games on Xbox.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is also concerned about the call of Duty when reviewing Microsoft's deal with Activision Blizzard. CMA is about to enter the second phase of its investigation, appointing an independent commission to determine whether Microsoft's control of games such as call of Duty and World of Warcraft will hurt competitors' business.

Since the launch of the call of Duty game, the struggle between Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation has never stopped. Earlier, Microsoft reached an agreement with Activision on the exclusivity of call of Duty, and then Sony began to fight for the agreement from the Xbox platform from Black Action III in 2015, and every call of Duty since then has some form of exclusive content on PlayStation. As lawyers for Microsoft and Sony continue to argue over call of Duty, regulators are also determining how important the game is to the market as a whole.

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