Although Microsoft may be willing to share Call of Duty for a while, the company ultimately wants the franchise entirely to itself.
Microsoft has responded to Sony’s assertion that Call of Duty cannot be replaced by telling Sony to create its series. Microsoft claims that ten years of multi-gen Call of Duty releases give Sony enough time to compensate for the loss by creating its online sh**ter to compete with the gaming giant.
Since Battlefield would be its closest competitor to Call of Duty should it become Xbox exclusive, Sony has previously stated that this is impossible and even insulted Battlefield. This may also indicate a shift in Xbox’s strategy, from promising to share Call of Duty to advising PlayStation to create its own game.
According to Microsoft, which provided information to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in the UK,” Microsoft considers that a period of 10 years is sufficient for Sony, as a leading publisher and console platform, to develop alternatives to CoD.” (thanks, VGC).
According to Microsoft’s testimony, the ten-year contracts it offers will last through the release of the following console generation. However, it is unclear whether or not the games released during this window will continue to be available on competing platforms after the agreement ends.
We had previously published a few Microsoft-related articles. You can learn more by visiting these links:
The statement reads, “Games downloaded in the final year of the [deal] can continue to be played for the lifetime of that console,” which may imply that the games will need to be installed to be played after that date. In any event, that’s Microsoft putting its cards on the table – it’s willing to sell a decade of Call of Duty but nothing beyond that.
It will be up to the CMA to determine whether or not this allows Sony enough time to make up for the competitive advantage that Microsoft’s Call of Duty exclusivity will give them, or even whether it is even possible considering the series’ long reign over the gaming market. So far, the CMA has claimed that the public favors the transaction as long as the emails it receives aren’t from bots.