Microsoft says it would make Call of Duty on PlayStation better than Xbox

Company also suggests ten years are enough for Sony to get an alternative
Microsoft says it would make Call of Duty on PlayStation better than Xbox
Microsoft says it would make Call of Duty on PlayStation better than Xbox /

Microsoft submitted a supplemental response to the Competition and Market Authority (CMA) in the UK, one of the regulators currently evaluating the company’s proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. In the document, the Xbox manufacturer claims that it would not just make Call of Duty have feature parity on all platforms, it would even provide Sony with a version that’s completely optimized for PS5 by including support for features such as the haptic feedback on DualSense controllers, making them in effect better than the Xbox Series X|S version.

Sony, which is heavily opposing the deal for Microsoft to take over the Call of Duty developer and looks more and more isolated in that resistance, has previously claimed that its rival could intentionally sabotage the games on PlayStation. Microsoft, of course, decried such a possibility as an absolute fantasy.

“As Microsoft will be shipping CoD on PlayStation in compliance with its remedy commitments [redacted], Microsoft will have every incentive to develop games with optimized support for PS5 features, such as haptics, and future consoles in order to maximize sales on the platform,” the company stated.

Microsoft offered Sony a deal which would contractually guarantee that it would deliver Call of Duty to PlayStation for the next ten years. Nintendo, NVIDIA, Boosteroid, and Ubitus all signed similar agreements, but the PlayStation manufacturer remains stubborn, hoping it can torpedo Xbox taking control of the franchise altogether.

The Xbox maker once again reiterated its willingness to sign such a contract with Sony and bemoaned the company’s uncompromising stance: “Sony has steadfastly refused to reach an agreement with Microsoft, calling instead for the Merger to be prohibited. Sony’s position must be seen for what it is: a self-serving attempt to protect its dominant market position, rather than one founded on genuine concerns regarding its continued access to CoD – which it could have secured on attractive terms months ago.”

In the supplemental response Microsoft also addressed the CMA’s inquiries about why it only offered a deal of ten years to Sony. The company wrote that “there is no basis” for a deal that covers a longer period of time, as ten years were “sufficient for Sony, as a leading publisher and console platform, to develop alternatives to CoD.”

Practically, Microsoft stated, this duration would mean that new Call of Duty games would still come to Sony’s platforms even in the console generation following the current one. Backwards compatibility would mean that older titles would be available to PlayStation owners indefinitely.

Sony previously stated towards regulators that Call of Duty was irreplaceable due its popularity, though Microsoft countered that argument by pointing out that Nintendo was doing fine without having access to the series.

The CMA’s current deadline to reach a decision in this case is April 26, 2023.


Published
Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg