Sony ended up reacting to the upcoming acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, contenting itself with calling on Microsoft to keep the current agreements between the studio and the PlayStation. In the longer term, the situation is uncertain.
This is an announcement that must have taken aback even in the staff of Sony: the wish to Microsoft to complete the acquisition of the Activision Blizzard studio within two years, for nearly 70 billion dollars. If he succeeds, the software specialist, who is already a powerful video game empire, will have his hands on several highly profitable licenses on PC, mobile and console.
What future on PlayStation for Activision Blizzard?
Since Microsoft shot down its cards on January 18, 2022, its great rival in consoles has been rather discreet. Still, there are a few things to worry about: what will the future hold for games like Call of Duty on PlayStation, with a parent company above Activision Blizzard called Microsoft and which sells a competing console, the Xbox?
The question of exclusives on Xbox immediately arose in the wake of the press release from the American company, because Microsoft has in the past demonstrated its ability to reserve the best parts of its purchases. With Besthesda,
Sony necessarily perceives the problem. Moreover, questioned on this subject on January 20 by the Wall Street Journal, a spokesperson for the group sent a message to the management of the Redmond firm: “ We hope that Microsoft will respect the contractual agreements and continue to guarantee that the games of Activision are cross-platform.”
Losing access to Call of Duty would be a blow for Sony, given the success of the license on the console. The problem is mainly in the long term: what will happen with future installments of the saga once Activision Blizzard becomes a subsidiary of Microsoft (assuming that the regulators do not come to derail the process of acquired)?
For further