Sony was offered ten-year Call of Duty deal, Microsoft has claimed
The dispute over the Activision Blizzard buyout is heating up even further, and now Microsoft claims that Sony was offered a ten-year deal to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation consoles.
The Activision buyout has been investigated by several regulators around the world, and while signs point to it going through, things are still somewhat up in the air. Microsoft offered to purchase Activision Blizzard for just shy of $70 billion last year.
The Call of Duty franchise is one of the most popular FPS games in the world, and Sony fears this buyout will keep the famously multiplatform series away from PlayStation consoles. This point has been raised with regulators multiple times.
Microsoft has repeated the line that exclusivity is not guaranteed, and existing deals with Sony to publish Call of Duty on PlayStation systems would be upheld. Now we learn that Microsoft offered to extend the deal for another ten years, though the terms have not been outlined publicly.
The news comes from the CEO of Microsoft Gaming, Phil Spencer, who confirmed Sony had been offered a deal to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation consoles.
Sony declined to comment on the statement made to the New York Times, and Spencer did not specify what Sony’s response to the deal was.
Spencer wrote: “The first call [Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella] and I made after the deal was announced was to the CEO of Sony to say, ‘Hey, we’re going to keep Call of Duty on your platform.’”
The truth is that Sony would likely prefer that Activision Blizzard remains independent, and continues to publish games across multiple platforms. Though if Microsoft’s offer does eventually pass regulators, it’s likely that Sony would have to agree to Microsoft’s terms.
We’ll have more details on the Activision Blizzard buyout as they develop.
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