Sony Fights Desperately To Keep Call Of Duty Available On The PlayStation

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With Microsoft and Activision Blizzard now in the process of finalizing their $69 billion merger, various government agencies have been scrutinizing the deal over concerns of its effects on free competition, particularly since there’s always the possibility that Microsoft could end up limiting Sony’s access to Activision Blizzard games.

Sony itself is also worried that the PlayStation might not be able to compete with Microsoft’s Xbox should the high-profile merger push through and have recently submitted its own arguments against the deal.

According to the filing, Sony believes that Microsoft will eventually make Call of Duty an Xbox exclusive despite the latter’s insistence that the franchise will remain available on the PlayStation. This is largely due to the fact that the studios that Microsoft previously acquired went on to develop and publish games exclusively for PC and Xbox.

Sony admits that no other franchise will be able to replicate Call of Duty’s success anytime soon which is why they’re doing everything in their power to ensure that they retain access to the popular shooter franchise. “Other publishers do not have the resources or expertise to match its success,” said Sony’s legal team. “To give a concrete example, Electronic Arts (one of the largest thirdparty developers after Activision) has tried for many years to produce a rival to Call of Duty with its Battlefield series.”

“Despite the similarities between Call of Duty and Battlefield and despite EA's track record in developing other successful AAA franchises (such as FIFA, Mass Effect, Need for Speed, and Star Wars: Battlefront)—the Battlefield franchise cannot keep up,” they added. “As of August 2021, more than 400 million Call of Duty games had been sold, while Battlefield had sold just 88.7 million copies.”

As for Microsoft, the company has promised to continue to make Activision Blizzard games available on the PlayStation until 2027. Apparently, that it isn’t enough time for PlayStation to launch a new console to at least be able to go toe to toe with the Xbox. “By the time SIE launched the next generation of its console (which is likely to occur around [REDACTED], it would have lost access to Call of Duty and other Activision titles,” Sony said.

If there’s one thing that you can take from that statement, it’s that the earliest that we can expect the new PlayStation console is 2028.