Two days after the major announcement that Activision Blizzard will join Microsoft Gaming, Phil Spencer, the CEO of Microsoft Gaming, tweeted an update on the situation as it relates to Sony and PlayStation:
Many people are taking this as confirmation that games in the Call of Duty franchise, and possibly other Activision Blizzard games, are going to continue to release on PlayStation consoles. However, this tweet is quite far from confirmation of that, or anything else, for that matter. Most of the tweet is reiterating what has already been said, but one part is new:
“our desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation”
Clearly he is not saying directly that Call of Duty games are going to continue to release on PlayStation. In fact, this tweet almost says nothing. For example, saying “Call of Duty” is quite vague. Is he talking about the existing Call of Duty games? New games? Just Warzone?
Apart from that, the “desire” for something obviously does not confirm that it is going to happen. As the CEO of Microsoft Gaming, Phil Spencer may just be the person with the most control of where Call of Duty ends up releasing. This means that the person standing in the way of Phil Spencer’s desire is more than likely himself. But why would he do that?
The desire… for Xbox Game Pass on PlayStation
The idea that Xbox Game Pass will one day end up on the Xbox’s competition has been around for a while. Many people have speculated on this possibility, and Phil Spencer has even openly discussed it.
As has been established for quite a while now, every game released under the Microsoft Gaming umbrella is available on Xbox Game Pass the day it comes out (assuming it is being sold through Microsoft for either Xbox or Windows). This means that if this deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard is completed, the Call of Duty series is going to be part of the Xbox Game Pass package.
What Phil Spencer (probably) really means:
Since he is most likely to be the person stopping this from happening, Phil Spencer likely told Sony that Call of Duty only stays on PlayStation if they agree to his conditions. One of his conditions is quite likely to be Xbox Game Pass being made available on PlayStation systems. It is hard to imagine such a thing happening, but if it does Call of Duty will definitely be a big part of the decision.
Of course it is completely possible that Call of Duty will continue to release on PlayStation without Sony meeting this condition, or even that the Activision Blizzard deal won’t go through. Just know that if it does happen, this tweet definitely isn’t the moment we knew it would.
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