PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan has publicly spoken out about Microsoft’s plans for potentially making the Call of Duty franchise a platform exclusive following a looming acquisition of Activision Blizzard. While Xbox boss Phil Spencer has seemingly offered an olive branch to Sony to assure them, Ryan has now called the offer “inadequate on many levels.”
Seeking to assure the various government bodies that are scrutinising the vast game company acquisition, Spencer last week provided a statement to The Verge saying they had given Sony a signed agreement that Call of Duty would remain on PlayStation “with feature and content parity, for at least several more years beyond the current Sony contract, an offer that goes well beyond typical gaming industry agreements.”
With PlayStation objecting to the deal in every forum available to it, Jim Ryan has now countered this, saying that Xbox had only offered an additional three years of such parity. It’s understood that prior content agreements would keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for the next three game releases – Modern Warfare II and the next two games – feasibly concluding the deal in 2024. Three more years would keep Call of Duty on PlayStation with content parity until 2027, right around the time that Sony and Microsoft might be considering for the PlayStation 6 and Xbox Super Bojangles X|Y|Z (or whatever they call it) release.
Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Ryan stated, “I hadn’t intended to comment on what I understood to be a private business discussion, but I feel the need to set the record straight because Phil Spencer brought this into the public forum.
“Microsoft has only offered for Call of Duty to remain on PlayStation for three years after the current agreement between Activision and Sony ends. After almost 20 years of Call of Duty on PlayStation, their proposal was inadequate on many levels and failed to take account of the impact on our gamers. We want to guarantee PlayStation gamers continue to have the highest quality Call of Duty experience, and Microsoft’s proposal undermines this principle.”
Of course, context is important. Both Microsoft and Sony can be telling the truth in this scenario. We’re rarely privy to the contracts and agreements between publishers and manufacturers, but from the history of the various exclusive content agreements we’ve seen in the past, Microsoft could reasonably say that agreeing to six games with full content parity does go beyond the kinds of extra modes, the month-long DLC exclusivity, and bonus missions that have been agreed previously, those tending to run for 3 or 5 years. Microsoft might well intend to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation but have those exclusive modes and other things for themselves on Xbox. Then again, it’s so far away that Call of Duty might not have the same cultural relevance it does today, so a cast iron agreement wouldn’t be suitable.
This spat is going to rumble on for a good while yet, as we wait for governments to decide whether or not to approve the deal.
Source: GamesIndustry.biz