Microsoft's planned buyout of Activision has dominated the gaming news cycle over the last few months, and questions surrounding the future of the 'Call Of Duty' franchise has been high on the agenda.
Last week, it was reported that should the planned buyout clear the legislative and anti-competition hurdles, Microsoft plans to bring the 'Call Of Duty' franchise to the Xbox Game Pass service, and now the Xbox boss Phil Spencer has reiterated that the best-selling franchise will remain on PlayStation consoles for the time being.
Speaking to The Verge, Spencer played down fears that the franchise would become Xbox exclusive, saying "in January, we provided a signed agreement to Sony to guarantee 'Call of Duty' on PlayStation, with feature and content parity, for at least several more years beyond the current Sony contract, an offer that goes well beyond typical gaming industry agreements."
This is backed up by a Bloomberg article from earlier this year that indicates that the franchise will remain on PlayStation consoles until at least 2024, which lead to Microsoft reiterating that the franchise will remain multi-platform.
In August, Microsoft told Brazillian regulators that they had "no plans" to make the 'Call Of Duty' franchise Xbox exclusive.
Microsoft's planned buyout of Activision, should it be approved, will go down as the biggest deal in gaming history, and would give Microsoft ownership of the 'Call Of Duty' franchise along with other hit franchises like 'Diablo', 'Overwatch', and the 'Crash Bandicoot' series.
From a business standpoint, it would make little sense for Microsoft to make 'Call Of Duty' an Xbox exclusive as the Xbox player base is lower than the PlayStation player base.
The PlayStation 4 outsold the Xbox One to the tune of 120 million to 60 million, and the PlayStation 5, despite widespread shortages, is still comfortably outpacing the new line of Xbox consoles.
With 'Call Of Duty' making an embarrassing amount of money from dreaded microtransactions (2020 estimates place revenue at well over $1 billion) it would not make sense for Microsoft to extinguish the revenue stream from the console with the highest 'Call Of Duty' playerbase.
Away from the nitty gritty of boardroom politics and business, the next 'Call Of Duty' game will release in late October.
'Modern Warfare 2' serves as the continuation of the 2019 'Modern Warfare' reboot - here's hoping the game will inspire epic showdowns like the Rust map from the original 'Modern Warfare 2' back in 2009.
