Call of Duty upcoming games to arrive on PlayStation, sources reveal
Four anonymous insiders recently revealed that Activision Blizzard had already committed to releasing the next three Call of Duty games for PlayStation as well as Xbox consoles.
According to a recent report by Bloomberg, the three games in question will be Infinity Ward’s new Call of Duty title – some speculated that this might be a sequel to 2019’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – to be released later this year followed by something that Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier referred to as a Warzone 2 on Twitter, which is a new iteration of the free-to-play Call of Duty: Warzone.
The last one is a new title from Black Ops developer studio Treyarch, slated to be released in 2023.
Honoring pre-existing deals with Sony
Following the $69BN acquisition from Microsoft earlier this month, fans have been buzzing with concerns about Call of Duty becoming an Xbox exclusive after the acquisition. Xbox head Phil Spencer responded by unambiguously emphasizing that Call of Duty will remain on PlayStation.
“Activision Blizzard games are enjoyed on a variety of platforms and we plan to continue to support those communities moving forward,” he said.
“Had good calls this week with leaders at Sony. I confirmed our intent to honor all existing agreements upon acquisition of Activision Blizzard and our desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation,” he added on Twitter. “Sony is an important part of our industry, and we value our relationship.”
In addition, Microsoft has also stated that it will honor Activision’s pre-existing deals with PlayStation “for at least the next two years.”
However, it needs to be noted that the statement doesn’t simply mean that Microsoft will extend them or agree to a new deal. All contractual obligations between Activision and Sony are reportedly set to be fulfilled by the end of next year or around 18 months to be exact.
What’s next for Call of Duty
No plan has been leaked so far about Microsoft’s future plans for Call of Duty after the release of those three games. However, putting profit into consideration, it’s possible that Microsoft wouldn’t make Call of Duty an Xbox exclusive as the series has better sales on PlayStation consoles.
Despite its promise to not deprive PlayStation owners of certain Activision games, observers have seen a certain pattern such as from Microsoft’s buy-out on Bethesda. After the acquisition, games like Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6 are now released exclusively on Xbox despite the initial promise to release for PS5.
Although making Call of Duty a permanently Xbox exclusive title can generate backlash from its preexisting community, there is also the chance that Microsoft will just brush it off in the hope to encourage more people to invest in an Xbox console instead and reaping the real benefit of the billion dollars buy-out eventually.
In addition, the disturbing fact that Activision is still refusing to acknowledge the labor rights of QA testers at Warzone studio Raven Software yet remains even after the acquisition. It is unclear whether Microsoft is going to take a stance regarding the dispute and how it will affect its business decision going forward.
