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.
Microsoft president Brad Smith also commented, saying, “From Day One of this acquisition, we’ve been 💸 committed to addressing the concerns of regulators, platform and game developers, and consumers. Even after we cross the finish line 💸 for this deal’s approval, we will remain focused on ensuring that Call of Duty remains available on more platforms and 💸 for more consumers than ever before.”
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.
PlayStation’s strategy was to use Call of Duty to convince regulators the 💸 merger would kill competition in the console market, because Microsoft would withhold the games from PlayStation or release inferior versions 💸 there. But this strategy was none too successful. EU regulators were satisfied with the assurances offered by Microsoft, while the 💸 U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority eventually conceded it was in Microsoft’s interest to keep Call of Duty available to PlayStation’s 💸 huge audience, and switched tack in its opposition of the deal to concerns around cloud gaming.