Latest Call of Duty deal report suggests PlayStation offered 10 years

By Kes Eylers-Stephenson,

Microsoft's deal to secure Activision Blizzard, and thus Call of Duty, is being considered from every angle by regulators. A new deep dive suggests that a 10-year deal for the first-person shooter franchise was offered to Sony.

The Call of Duty series is at the centre of the Microsoft deal to acquire Activision Blizzard, as everyone knows at this point. However, in order to get the deal past regulatory bodies, it appears the Xbox owners offered a 10-year lease on the franchise to try and 'appease' rivals Sony.

call of duty modern warfare ii

Call of Duty at the centre of a big tech dilemma

Lifted from the massive and fantastic article Can Big Tech Get Bigger? Microsoft Presses Governments to Say Yes by the New York Times, it is noted in a deep dive into Sony and Microsoft's opposing Call of Duty arguments that a deal had been made and refuted. While we knew this already, the article gives notes hereto unheard of. "Microsoft said that on Nov. 11 it offered Sony a 10-year deal to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation. Sony declined to comment on the offer."

This is a detail not yet discussed even when Head of Gaming at Xbox Phil Spencer states that no deal could last forever, but CoD would remain on PlayStation. 10 years, the length of the reported deal, is pretty much forever in gaming terms — it is a console generation and a half in our current age. That is enough time for anything to happen. As noted, Sony probably wouldn't be happy with it regardless because Call of Duty is just one of the myriad of issues the company has with the acquisition — chiefly that it appears monopolistic.

call of duty mwiiGhost might be a bit upset at the deal

That brings us to a bit of a standstill really, waiting for the UK, European, and American regulators to start reaching conclusions. Remember, this isn't really about not liking the games, as adeptly noted in the article — Microsoft considers this an 'easy deal' that would open up the gateway to mass acquisitions of a much bigger scale. Anyway, on a smaller scale, check out our best FPS games on PlayStation and get in the comments to let us know what you think of the news!
Kes Eylers-Stephenson
Written by Kes Eylers-Stephenson
Editor Kes is our resident expert in PlayStation and other gaming news. He writes about PS5 exclusives like The Last of Us and Horizon, PS Plus news, and his favorite games — The Witcher, Assassin’s Creed, and God of War — before an evening swim.
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