PlayStation’s Call of Duty deal extension may only last three years

By George Yang Published September 7, 2022

PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan has revealed that Xbox offered to keep the Call of Duty franchise on PlayStation for only three additional years after existing deals expire.

However, Ryan isn’t keen on the terms. In a statement to GamesIndustry.biz, he says, “Microsoft has only offered for Call of Duty to remain on PlayStation for three years after the current agreement between Activision and Sony ends. After almost 20 years of Call of Duty on PlayStation, their proposal was inadequate on many levels and failed to take account of the impact on our gamers.”

Recommended Videos

He continues, “We want to guarantee PlayStation gamers continue to have the highest quality Call of Duty experience, and Microsoft’s proposal undermines this principle.”

Ryan explains that while this is a matter of private business, he elected to bring the discussion up publicly as a result of Microsoft announcing that it reached out to Sony with an agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation.

Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard faced some additional scrutiny last week due to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority saying that the merger could affect competition. Xbox’s Phil Spencer responded by saying that franchises like Call of Duty, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft would be added to Xbox Game Pass and also that juggernaut franchises like Call of Duty would remain multiplatform.

PlayStation’s deal with Call of Duty reportedly covers the next three releases, which also includes this year’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Ryan’s statement indicates that the franchise could be removed from PlayStation platforms within the next few years and become exclusive to the Microsoft ecosystem eventually.

Topics

George Yang is a freelance games writer for Digital Trends. He has written for places such as IGN, GameSpot, The Washington…

Gaming

One year later, my PlayStation VR2 is collecting dust

The PlayStation VR2 sits on a table next to Sense controllers.

One year ago, I took my first step into virtual reality with the PlayStation VR2. One year later, I haven't walked much further.

I spent a long time watching the VR sect of the gaming medium from the sidelines, curious about this new form of interaction, but never taking the full plunge. Impressed with the PSVR2’s specs and confident in Sony’s first-party capabilities, I bought it at launch in February 2022. After a week of use, I wrote that I “anticipate it’ll be a very supplemental gaming style for me in the future, not something I’ll want to do for hours every day.”

Gaming

Hogwarts Legacy beats out Call of Duty to become 2023’s bestselling game

A student waving a wand in Hogwarts Legacy.

Circana's Mat Piscatella has released video game market highlights for 2023, and WB Games' Hogwarts Legacy ended up being the bestselling game of 2023, beating out the likes of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III and Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

"Hogwarts Legacy finished as 2023’s bestselling video game in the U.S. market in dollar sales. It is the first year since 2008 that a non-Call of Duty or Rockstar-developed title ranked 1st (Rock Band)," Piscatella explained on X. "Hogwarts Legacy was the bestselling game of the year on PlayStation platforms, ranked 2nd on Xbox platforms, and placed 5th on Nintendo platforms."

Gaming

These Activision Blizzard games need to come to Xbox Game Pass this year

Sekiro easy mode mod FromSoftware Souls games gameplay difficulty

In October 2023, Microsoft completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and by the end of the year, the latter company's CEO had departed. Now, this will be the year where we’ll see how Activision Blizzard functions when fully integrated into Microsoft. The most immediate change for those who play games will likely be Activision Blizzard titles coming to Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft’s subscription service.

Microsoft and Activision have explained that because of the tribulations the acquisition encountered, it was impossible to have Xbox Game Pass additions prepared almost immediately after the acquisition, as it did with ZeniMax Media. In the coming months, I expect we’ll finally start to see Activision Blizzard games trickle onto the service, even if we shouldn't expect it from this week's Developer_Direct. As Activision Blizzard is one of the oldest game publishers out there, having released hundreds of games, there are plenty of titles to choose from. I’ve cherry-picked the ones I want to see most.
Diablo IV