Xbox Chief Plans to Keep Call of Duty on PlayStation After Microsoft’s Acquisition of Activision Blizzard

Microsoft has recently announced that it is acquiring Activision Blizzard.

By Siddhant Chandra | Updated: 21 January 2022 18:36 IST

Xbox Chief Plans to Keep Call of Duty on PlayStation After Microsoft’s Acquisition of Activision Blizzard

Photo Credit: Activison Blizzard

Activision Blizzard owns other famous titles like Overwatch and Diablo

Highlights

Microsoft intends to bring Activision games to Xbox Game Pass
Microsoft had recently acquired Bethesda’s parent company
Microsoft will be acquiring Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion

Microsoft recently announced that it will be acquiring Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion (roughly Rs. 5,10,990 crore). The wheels have been set in motion, and the deal is expected to close in fiscal year 2023. Activision Blizzard currently has famous titles like World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Overwatch under its belt. However, one of its most notable franchises is Call of Duty. This acquisition has cast some clouds over the multi-platform nature of the Call of Duty games. Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, has mentioned in a recent tweet that they have been in talks with leaders at Sony to address these concerns.

In the tweet, Spencer confirms the intentions of Microsoft "to honour all existing agreements upon acquisition of Activision Blizzard". He mentions that Sony PlayStation will keep getting Call of Duty games, for the time being. Similar concerns arose when Microsoft acquired Zenimax Media in September 2021. Zenimax Media is the parent company of Bethesda that is renowned for titles like Dishonored, Doom, Fallout, and Elder Scrolls. At that time also, Microsoft chose to honour the existing agreements relating to Deathloop that launched as a PlayStation 5 exclusive.

The acquisition of Activision Blizzard also hints towards Microsoft's desire to dominate the mobile gaming space. Activision currently owns the mobile gaming studio King, developer of the Candy Crush games. Activision has also been able to successfully launch Call of Duty: Mobile for Android and iOS.

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Recent reports have suggested that Microsoft plans to bring as many Activision games as they can to its Xbox Game Pass subscription service. Additionally, it is likely to turn some of these games into Microsoft exclusives. However, PlayStation fans of revered titles like Elder Scrolls and Call of Duty might have to buy an Xbox console to play future titles from their favourite franchises when these agreements run their course.

PS5 vs Xbox Series X: Which is the best "next-gen" console in India? We discussed this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.

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Microsoft Xbox Series S

KEY SPECS
NEWS

HDD 512GB PCie Gen 4 NVME SSD

Processor Custom 8-core AMD Zen 2 CPU @ 3.8GHz

Graphics Custom AMD RDNA 2 GPU 20 CUs @ 1.565GHz

RAM 10GB GDDR6 RAM

More Microsoft Gaming Consoles

Microsoft Xbox Series X

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Good
Really powerful
Delivers constant 4K 60fps
Reduced loading times
Great backward compatibility
Support for Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos
Capable of 8K / 120fps
Network transfer feature

Bad
Expensive
Lack of truly next-gen exclusives
Not a generation leap over Xbox One X at launch
Proprietary storage expansion
No rechargeable battery with controller
Implementation of Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos

Read detailed Microsoft Xbox Series X review

HDD 1TB PCie Gen 4 NVME SSD

Processor Custom 8-core AMD Zen 2 CPU @ 3.8GHz

Graphics Custom AMD RDNA 2 GPU 52 CUs @ 1.825GHz

RAM 16GB GDDR6

USB 3

Weight 4.45kg

Ethernet Gigabit

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Sony PlayStation 5

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Good
DualSense is great
Very powerful
Reduced loading times
Friendlier storage expansion
Capable of 8K / 120fps
4K Blu-ray player (finally)

Bad
Expensive
Lack of truly next-gen exclusives
Not a generation leap over PS4 Pro at launch
Game prices now go up to Rs. 5,000
Missing next-gen upgrades for PS4 games
No "Quick Resume", as on Xbox Series X
Limited backward compatibility
No support for Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos
SSD storage amount is restrictive

Read detailed Sony PlayStation 5 review

HDD 825GB PCie Gen 4 NVMe SSD

Processor Custom 8-core AMD Zen 2 CPU @ 3.5GHz with SMT

Graphics Custom AMD RDNA 2 GPU 36 CUs @ 2.23GHz (variable frequency)

RAM 16GB GDDR6

USB 4

Weight 4.5kg

Ethernet Gigabit

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