Microsoft to keep Call of Duty on Sony Playstation

NEW YORK

Microsoft has signed an agreement with Sony to keep the Call of Duty video game series on the PlayStation console after the tech giant acquires video game maker Activision Blizzard.

The announcement was made in a Twitter post by Phil Spencer, who heads up Microsoft’s Xbox division.

“We look forward to a future where players globally have more choice to play their favorite games,” Spencer said in the post.

Call of Duty has been at the center of a corporate tug-of-war between Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation over Microsoft’s planned $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard, which makes the best-selling Call of Duty lineup.

As it tried to persuade regulators around the world to approve the deal, Microsoft struck deals with Nintendo and some cloud gaming providers to license Activision titles like Call of Duty for 10 years and offered the same to Sony. Until now, Sony hadn’t signed on. It has now, as Microsoft inches closer to completing the buyout.

On July 14, a U.S. appeals court rejected a bid by federal regulators to block Microsoft’s acquisition.

Microsoft struck the deal for Activision in January of 2022 to expand its video game imprint beyond Xbox, which has less market share than longtime industry leader Sony and its PlayStation device. The company has been seeking regulatory approval in the U.S. and abroad over the past few months, trailed by objections from Sony, which feared losing access to what it describes as a “must-have” game title.