Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier reported that, at least for 2022 and 2023, the upcoming mainline Call of Duty games will still be released on Playstation consoles. This includes a sequel to Call of Duty: Warzone.
Activision Blizzard’s longtime money-maker, the Call of Duty series has been a staple multi-platform offering for a long time. While the series has shifted between Playstation and Microsoft for beta tests and exclusive content, it’s only since in the impending acquistion by Microsoft that console exclusivity arose as a possible issue.
Xbox CEO Phil Spencer has Tweeted that he has a desire to “keep Call of Duty on Playstation” and that “Sony is an important part of our industry.”
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. Sony is an important part of our industry, and we value our relationship.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) January 20, 2022
Microsoft has been known to keep previous deals from companies they acquire, the most recent example being the timed exclusivity for Arkane’s Deathloop. However, both Bethesda’s upcoming Starfield and Arkane’s Redfall are exclusive to Microsoft platforms, so the precedent is set for the Activision Blizzard series to migrate away from multi-platform in the future.
There is always the chance that the deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard does fall through, but as it stands players may find themselves upset in a few years when Call of Duty: Advanced Super Black Ops Warfare WW4 comes to Game Pass first.