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.
