Activision Blizzard games will still land on PlayStation consoles but Microsoft has certain exclusivity plans for Xbox as well.
According to a report by Bloomberg earlier today, sources close to Microsoft have confirmed that some Activision Blizzard games will continue to be released for PlayStation consoles while some will become exclusive for Xbox once the acquisition nears completion.
Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, has already sent out an assurance that Microsoft will not be keeping every piece of Activision Blizzard content exclusive to Xbox. He further reminded that Xbox has no intention of ripping PlayStation communities apart or forcing them to leave their platform of choice.
“I will 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,” said Spencer in an interview.
Microsoft will be acquiring Activision Blizzard, including all of its subsidiary studios and game franchises, for close to $70 billion as a mighty new addition to its first-party family of Xbox Game Studios.
Spencer previously confirmed that Microsoft will be bringing “as many Activision Blizzard games” as possible on Xbox Game Pass, including day-one releases. That was always an inevitability once the acquisition was officially announced, but players, specifically the Call of Duty community wants to know how their beloved franchise will be dealt in the long run.
Making new Call of Duty games day-one releases on Game Pass would help Microsoft gain a massive boost to its subscriber-count, but would Microsoft actually consider making the entire Call of Duty franchise exclusive to Xbox? That would certainly result in a lot of frowns.
Remember that something similar happened with Bethesda after its parent company ZeniMax Media was acquired by Microsoft. Both Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6 are now exclusive to Xbox.
When Spencer said that he has no plans to uproot communities, he may have been referring to the online and multiplayer crowd. Hence, in theory, Microsoft may as well be limiting single-player Activision Blizzard games to Xbox while keeping games such as Call of Duty: Warzone available on all platforms.
