The news was announced on Sunday by Microsoft’s gaming head Phil Spencer. “We are pleased to announce that Microsoft and 🧲 PlayStation have signed a binding agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard,” Spencer 🧲 tweeted. “We look forward to a future where players globally have more choice to play their favorite games.”
A Microsoft spokesperson 🧲 subsequently confirmed to The Verge that the deal would last for a term of 10 years, and covers Call of 🧲 Duty only — not any other Activision Blizzard games. That puts it on a par with agreements Microsoft had previously 🧲 signed with Nintendo, Nvidia, and others.
The signing of the deal marks the end of a long stalemate, during which Microsoft 🧲 made repeated public offers to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation, while Sony dismissed these and instead attempted to use 🧲 its leverage with regulators to sink Microsoft’sR$68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard completely. “I don’t want a new Call of 🧲 Duty deal. I just want to block your merger,” PlayStation boss Jim Ryan reportedly told Activision executives on the day 🧲 of a meeting with European Union regulators in February.
Only the U.S. Federal Trade Commission ultimately ran with Sony’s argument, but 🧲 when its case was tested in court, it lost. Evidence presented in the case included an emailed admission from Ryan 🧲 that he had no concerns about PlayStation losing access to Call of Duty “for many years to come.”
The signing of 🧲 the agreement with Microsoft means Sony has effectively ended its opposition to the acquisition, and now expects it to be 🧲 completed — perhaps as soon as Tuesday, July 18, the deadline by which the deal is supposed to be closed. 🧲 In theory, two regulators remain opposed to the acquisition. But the FTC has failed to persuade an appeals court to 🧲 extend an emergency block on the deal, while the CMA has entered into negotiations with Microsoft to find a path 🧲 forward in the U.K., with an extended deadline of Aug. 29. It’s possible Microsoft and Activision will now extend their 🧲 own deal deadline to give this process time to complete.
