The acquisition of Activision by Microsoft was a real thunderbolt that shook the entire video game industry, but what about the main competitor? Sony has given its response to the news.
Call of Sony
Asked by the Wall Street Journal, a Sony official reacted to the news which continues to shock the video game sphere. However, we will only be entitled to a short sentence: “We expect Microsoft to honor agreements that ensure Activision games are cross-platform.”
Obviously, the license that Sony has in mind (mainly) is the most popular FPS on the market: call of duty. The franchise is very far from negligible for the Japanese manufacturer, as evidenced by the figures given recently concerning the most downloaded games on the PlayStation Store in 2021. According to the rankings by platform and by region, we find an opus in the top 5 at least. This also resulted in a stock market crash for Sony.
After this takeover, doubt hangs over the future of the franchise, but in any case, Xbox will be greatly advantaged over its rival. Knowing that Sony has always been entitled to privileges in the past such as temporary exclusive modes and other various bonuses, the change will still be felt if we stay on the multiplatform. As for death loop following the acquisition of Bethesda, there is little chance that Microsoft will move things currently by withdrawing, for example, Activision games on PlayStation consoles.
On the other hand, it is not excluded that in the future we will be entitled to call of duty exclusive on Xbox even if Phil Spencer, the man at the head of Microsoft Gaming, wanted to be reassuring by specifying: “It is not our intention to drive communities away from this platform…”. Some analysts say, however, that regulators could rule on franchises like call of duty because of the monopoly problems that this situation could pose.