Xbox head says Microsoft has “desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation”

Xbox head Phil Spencer has spoken of Microsoft’s “desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation” following the company’s $70BN acquisition of Activision Blizzard earlier this week.

In the aftermath of Microsoft’s takeover news, many questions remained, not least regarding how the deal would impact platform exclusivity for all of Activision Blizzard’s currently multi-platform titles, including the likes of Overwatch and Call of Duty.

Microsoft’s initial nods toward the issue were vague at best, with its press release announcing the deal merely saying, “Activision Blizzard games are enjoyed on a variety of platforms and we plan to continue to support those communities moving forward.” Spencer repeated the same woolly assertions later that day, telling Bloomberg, “I’ll just say to players out there who are playing Activision Blizzard games on Sony’s platform: It’s not our intent to pull communities away from that platform and we remained committed to that.”

Now, however, Spencer has given his clearest statement yet on how Microsoft intends to handle Activision Blizzard titles following the takeover. “Had good calls this week with leaders at Sony,” he wrote on Twitter. “I confirmed our intent to honour all existing agreements upon acquisition of Activision Blizzard and our desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation.”

“Sony is an important part of our industry,” Spencer added, “and we value our relationship.”

Spencer’s latest statement aligns with claims made by a source in a recent Bloomberg report that Microsoft’s future decisions would likely to be made on a title-by-title basis, with some Activision Blizzard games remaining available on PlayStation (and presumably Switch) while others would be Xbox exclusives.

It also follows Sony’s own response to the Activision Blizzard news, in which it told Bloomberg, “We expect that Microsoft will abide by contractual agreements and continue to ensure Activision games are multi-platform”.