Microsoft Confirms Plans For Activision Blizzard Games On PlayStation, Nintendo Switch

Ah good so only the unpopular titles will be Xbox exclusive.

Surprising, but probably for the best for the industry. If they're true to their word then fair play, bravo MS

Hmm, so in the future we could quite possible see these two companies blossoming into a new relationship. I wonder… what would the love child be called? PlayBox? X-Station? Who would get the surname? Microny? Sonsoft? ROFL!

As long as I can play them as a part of Game Pass, I don't really care

I had a feeling they want to bring CoD in some capacity to Switch. It’s a big hole.

Classy move if true. Although I wouldn't be surprised if there were several exclusives announced alongside the yearly multiplatform releases.

Strange move from a business perspective to be honest but good for gamers.

Having mainline COD games as Xbox exclusive would have been THE biggest draw they could have had to draw lots of casuals into the Xbox eco-system.
Obviously having future COD titles day one in Game Pass is also huge, but not enough to draw people who literally only buy COD and FIFA away from PlayStation.

I have zero interest in Call Of Duty but this is a good move for Microsoft and Sony. Sony keeps their CoD casuals and MS swims in the profits. I’m sure Sony are very happy with this too.

Microsoft have plenty of studios working on exclusives and out of everyone under their umbrella, Activision are the drizzling sh*ts, good move to keep them multiplat imo.

Think this has Anything to do with the confirmed FTC investigation to come? Rather play it safe than sorry and potentially giving themselves a bad look.

I think they know they can have their cake and eat it too. Get more interest for people to get on Xbox with all these games on GamePass, while raking in profits from sales on other platforms.

PlayStation and Switch players can basically pay to help finance our GamePass games!

(Not saying this as a fanboy as I also own a PS5 but I sure as hell won’t be buying Activision games for it!)

Wow this is going to p**s a few people off 🤣
Tbh I'm just glad I can play overwatch 2 on playstation and carry over all my skins and progress.

So basically all future overwatch, call of duty, diablo, crash bandicoot and spyro games will still come to playstation as anything else they do is mediocre and not as popular.

Question is though, why do this with Activisions games and not Bethesda's?

@UltimateOtaku91 Again, Sony and Nintendo will help finance these games on GamePass. I don’t have a problem with that. And having those games on GP will draw people into the Xbox ecosystem. Sounds like good business!

Smart business, give CoD day 1 to game Pass subscribers while charging everyone else $70

Everybody wins then? PS still gets COD and COD is now on Gamepass, suits me as i ain't buying COD so Gamepass for them and then Diablo 4 hopefully for PS5.

This decision makes a lot of sense as they're considering that:

1- Series (and also PS5 and Switch's Sucessor) will never outsell the Switch and the PS4 not matter the effort. Situations like what happened with those 2 consoles only happen once in a lifetime and never happen again (specially if we consider Japan and Asia)

2- There's a pre-established audience for many of the games that Activision have in PS and not everyone will jump ship to the Xbox Ecosystem even if they want to due to other reasons

Wow. That sucks because I wanted Playstation to be pressured. God dammit.

Is the industry slowing turning and changing only time will tell.
As for games that come, I will wait and see if any are worth playing.
Remember you only miss out if it is something you really truly want to play with exclusives, which has always been the draw to a specific console purchase or multiple console purchases.
I guess this will end up in the future with maybe no console purchase required we all stream now, then we can have fanboy software battles 😂😂😂

@SecretAgentCat I genuinely believe this is MS end game. Move Game Pass and Xbox studios to multi platform and stop making consoles. They only make other devices like laptops out of necessity their core business is software and services at the end of the day.

@UltimateOtaku91
Well, all we know for sure with Bethesda is that new IP will be exclusive.
We only have Redfall and Starfield to go on so far.

What if...
When we get beyond the existing agreement, the "make them available to PlayStation" means only through a GamePass app.
PlayStation either agree to the GP app on their machine, or... if PlayStation don't allow it, then MS take the games with them and say "Well, we tried to make it available to them!".

@SecretAgentCat You want a Monopoly sir?

@RevGaming
I think Sony are well pressured, with trillion dollar Microsoft and Nintendo in the gaming market.
Sales show so far last year and this year that it is not all going Sonys way as much as last generation.
I think compared to last generation this is the most pressure Sony has on them since the PS3 days.

It's pretty clear (especially given how it's already been stated by MS) that MS and Sony, both which showed pretty good restraint for a long time when it came to making acquisitions, are spooked by the potential of other companies entering the business and buying up everything. As I posted on PushSquare, I'd rather MS and Sony own companies like Bethesda, Activision and Bungie but in the long term I'm not sure consolidation is good for the gaming industry.

We'll see how everything plays out. I don't love the direction it's going, tbh.

@Dezzy70 Well there's still Bethesda and the other studios from Activision. Yeah there's more pressure, but that call of duty man. I know they must be feeling more calm.

@blinx01 Call of Duty was the only thing that was going to make PS5 shake.

Maybe it has to do something with the FTC? Oh. Wait. Then I guess making COD not annually will benefit them because those studios can make games exclusive to Xbox.

So, they pulled a Minecraft. Oh well.

@dem1stav Ain't nobody spending $500 plus xbox live + gamepass over just paying $70 on ps5. For the people that only play that game I mean.

People forget that Phil is still a gamer and he don't want to take games away from other gamers.

@Kohaku Suuure. Tell that to Bethesda games.

There's probably something we don't know. Either Sony making a deal for Bungie's next game to be on xbox, the FTC or something.

I don't see this as a gesture of goodwill.

There's only two reasons I can think of to why Microsoft are doing this.

1, they have done some number crunching and they need the games to sell on playstation to make this acquisition worth it.

2, Activision made this demand of Microsoft for the purchase to be completed like destiny did with Sony when they asked to stay multiplatform

Maybe i'm spiteful, and maybe this did happen, but if i were Phil, i would have called Sony, and we would have had a VERY serious conversation about Final Fantasy, Persona, Ni No Kuni, and every other franchise they've paid to keep off Xbox . that would have gotten straightened out before i made this announcement.

@UltimateOtaku91 i mean, COD is the #1 seller on Playstation. why turn down Billions of dollars? to make fanboys happy?

@RevGaming
Let’s see what part of COD goes multiplatform in the future.
Let’s all not forget that the is future 2024 winter a lot can change in the landscape by then, about three years away.
At the moment it’s all PR and maybe speculation for sure.

@armondo36
I being power mad, but if I was Xbox I would destroy the competition over the next few years and keep all those studios and games just for Xbox and game pass.
You want them you put game pass on your console Sony and Nintendo, then we talk.
He-man, I have the power. 😂

@Dezzy70 I hope they mean mobile games coming to PS5 LMAO.

I actually wanted them to be exclusive. Phil! Take away my games I don't care about so Sony makes more of what I want to play.

I bet next generation they will all be exclusive.

I kind of don't like this move, but I'm sure there are regulatory reasons behind it.

Phil's a nice guy

@RevGaming
Yes at the moment and looking into 2022 Sony definitely are making more of what I want to play.
HFW and GOW definitely, maybe GT7.
When we get to Starfield, Fable, Avowed, gears of war etc and if of the right AAA quality in all areas Xbox may have more to offer me. Probably 2023 onward looking at the moment.

Sony should buy Capcom to trade their games for Bethesda games and it's the OG Xbox 2018 studios vs... lol.

Honestly even if I didn't own a ps5 I couldn't care less about them being exclusive....all I am bothered about is the game coming to gamepass day 1.....don't really gain anything from cod being exclusive.......potential other dormant franchises will probably be exclusive though....like guitar hero maybe

Does he mean he is willing to bring Game Pass to PS5 or in exchange of games blocked by Sony via moneyhatting?

So it means current games will stay multiplatform even after current deals expire but all released in the future will be exclusive if they wish.

@Dezzy70

It's Xbox + Bethesda vs Sony's WWS minus Bungie again.

PS def has the lead since last year I'd say they tied, but on launch PS crushed them and now 2022 will crush them again and even more if Starfield gets delayed. They needed to catch up on console sales. Why play nice? They're not even tied atm.

@RevGaming since Xbox strategy is number of gamepass subscribers. Not the the number of pieces of plastic sold.

@Lavalera People who buy the plastic boxes are the ones that will be buying the pieces of digital subscriptions.

Can you imagine Sony now buys Capcom or Square and they're all PS exclusives?

Why play nice?

"through the term of any existing agreement with Activision"

They've said this since day 1, and said the same thing with Bethesda. Honoring contracts (Hello Deathloop) but doesn't mean anything after that.

@dem1stav Ok, but Gamepass is not on Playstation. Or... Call of duty is on Playstation. However you want to look at it. That library needs to have games that aren't on other platforms.

@dem1stav Gamepass on Playstation won't happen. That'll be horrible. Xbox will go third party and Sony will have no competition. It would be hard too because unless they develop games for ps5, the Gamepass thing would be all cloud. Really doubt it. Sony would probably come up with their own service first.

Well EA doesn't own a platform/console and EA makes games for PS anyways.

Whoever wants a console or a service to have everything is asking for trouble.

@UltimateOtaku91 King makes this acquisition worth it. Console gamers are peanuts comparatively. King only could easily make the money back.

I think people forget Candy Crush comes with this deal and it makes way way more money.

Not that I don’t think they aren’t doing this to make money from PS gamers just that they don’t need to.

@RevGaming
Yes games wise and that is what matters to me new big AAA legendary games at the minute this year 2022 Sony and Nintendo seems to have the year for the taking, unless Xbox surprise us and also make sure Starfield releases and is top end AAA, not half baked like Halo Infinite. Played Halo it’s good but not near the likes of Sony and Nintendo’s big AAA offerings.

It's an interesting move coming on the heels of Sony announcing Destiny will remain on Xbox.

I genuinely don't understand why anyone here is upset about this — this is good for gamers. Xbox gamers get the game Day 1 on Gamepass, Playstation gamers still get access, and those of us with access to all the consoles get to pick and choose where we want to play.

I think a lot of people want to have their cake and eat it too: it's good when Destiny stays on Xbox, but somehow bad when Xbox reciprocates the same gesture with Call of Duty.

Don't worry about Microsoft. They're going to be just fine. And with this move, millions of gamers are going to be fine too. I hope this friendlier approach between companies continues.

@Banjo-

This was my thought... He's gonna make it available through gamepass app on PS (or at least try that strategy)... will PS allow it (which could cause then to lose some game sales) or would they deny the GP app (which would risk MS taking COD away and Sony losing hardware AND software sales)?

It's would be a ballsy, hard-nosed move by MS and I don't see them doing it soon... But maybe in the run up to the next gen.

Maybe Phil can afford to play nice now, knowing his successor will have to make the more unpleasant moves further downstream.

@EvenStephen7
You are absolutely right, both systems will still have their own fan base and lots of other exclusives that will draw them to console sales etc.
And a few games from Bungie and Activision will be multiplatform.
Sony get COD, Xbox get Destiny.
It’s so simple and not a big deal at all.
All a load of old hot air and wind that’s all.

@mousieone think the most successful CoD is actually the mobile entry, and that one would fare perfectly on the Switch.

I understand they trying to be clear, but I still am skeptic at many levels. Maybe, just maybe, CoD remains on PS, but they stop doing them annually and fall back to every-3-years, focusing on games that will be exclusives and maintaining Warzone with constant updates.

But if I recall correctly, there was word from some other non-xbox people during the Bethesda acquisition, and as soon as the thing closed, BANG, "this is about exclusives" comes out of Phil's mouth.

@Tharsman I'm now buying the game on who owns the studio that made that game lol. I bought Dishonored and Fallout 4 (liked them both) and have Dishonored 2, but I'm buying PS Bethesda released games, Hellblade, Outerworld etc. on xbox

Reason: maybe backwards compatible with PS6 is affected... or they run better on xbox intentionally or we get price cuts etc.

@Royalblues Nisa and Ys games are also on the nintnedo switch and so are games like disgaea, atelier series, dragon quest heroes/builders and trails of cold steel. So sony aren't blocking these types of games, it's the actual Japanese developers themselves that don't want to put the games on xbox for some reason.

@Tharsman yeah I never got why they didn’t throw that on switch it has a touch screen…

@mousieone that's why I never understood why playstation or xbox have never made any real attempt at mobile games, I mean Nintendo have made billions on their mobile games, and games like clash of clans and genshin impact make billions as well.

Sony could make some decent phone games to rake in the cash and then use that money to invest into console games. Plus mobile games only cost a fraction of a console game to make

One has to love where this is going. MS planning to support other platforms, just as Sony with Bungie (and almost certainly those 10 other service games).
Ideally, there is time before us where it truly becomes about the content you purchase/rent and less about the machine you consume it on (single licence all platforms anyone?)..

I like it, I would love to play Overwatch or Call of Duty with my PS friends, with me, still playing at Xbox

Sounds like everyone wins. COD players can still buy that one game a year on their PS COD machine. Paying 2-3 times the amount a year to then not own it afterwards probably isn't their consumption method and not in their best interest.

So, what will the ponies hate Microsoft for now? There's got to be something. Maybe Phil has a new keychain that offends them or something

Seriously, I did expect this from the beginning (you can fact check me on my initial posts in the announcement article here), I considered they may not, and I fully expect they'll change how CoD is release to more of the Halo Infinite model, because ultimately they didn't buy Acti to keep it running the way it was with the whole company cranking out annual CoD, they wanted the vast pool of unterutilized talent and studios to work on new stuff (that will be XB/GP exclusive.) But Ultimately, CoD at least I figured they would likely keep multiplat. Maybe Diablo. Maybe some other things (probably not Crash and Spyro, though their mention of Nintendo means maybe...) Activision is a lot more than CoD, even if Kotick never figured that out.

Plus Sony's Bungie buy and announcement that Destiny stays multiplat really forced their hand either way. Not a good look if they told Sony they can't have CoD after Sony said they get to have Destiny.

But it's also in-line with what I've been saying all along (even if ponies never believe me), MS and Sony are more partners than they are rivals in maintaining the status quo, and would have a lot of incentive to cooperate (or more cynically, collude....) to keep the industry as it is and split between them rather than letting the Big Data companies in the door. I don't doubt in the distant future we might see Fallout and God of War "Real Console Platform Exclusive + PC" with MS and Sony trading GP/Now features and colluding to keep Googazonbookcentpple off their lawn.

@UltimateOtaku91 I'm guessing because CoD and "other popular games" (I assume meaning Diablo, Guitar Hero, etc), are primarily service games with long tail sales and mtx, while Bethesda games are primarily single player. Getting service games on as many platforms as possible benefits the game, while spreading single player doesn't really help the game at all and hinders its draw to a platform.

@UltimateOtaku91

"Wow this is going to p**s a few people off 🤣"

Perhaps, but nowhere near as much as it p***d you off when the initial acquisition was announced, oh I have almost forgotten your brethren over @ PushSquare 🤣🤣 .
This is great news 👏, but the hypocrisy is breathtaking 😁

Because, all those games will be on gamepass, and that's all xbox fans need worry about. Whether somebody else gets to buy the game elsewhere should not effect your enjoyment of a game.

@mousieone they should Port cod mobile to switch I'd much rather play that than warzone

@antstephenson That's an interesting point.

@Sol4ris @Royalblues He hates Microsoft and specifically Phil. He's slightly ambiguous on here but on Push Square is at Sam and Robert's level.

@Banjo- hate Phil yes, but I don't hate Microsoft, I just don't like the way throw the amount of money they do to buy the biggest third party studios, if I hated Microsoft then I wouldn't have anything to do with them

OK disclaimer, anyone that is taking this as a big PS victory will just think im a sad player that wont accept the obvious statement, but for one: i dont care for activision/blizzard games, and either outcome wont impact me (plus I have all 3 major consoles.)

So... looking again at the quote:

"To be clear, Microsoft will continue to make Call of Duty and other popular Activision Blizzard titles available on PlayStation through the term of any existing agreement with Activision.

Then they follow with:

"And we have committed to Sony that we will also make them available on PlayStation beyond the existing agreement and into the future"

One way this can be taken is that they will stop making new games past pre-existing agreements, but those games (the ones made till that point) will be made available permanently afterwards. In other words: they wont be delisted (and any service game, I would imagine, continue to be maintained/patched/updated.)

I've not understood the uproar either to be honest. The pull regardless imo was all Acti titles going to Game Pass Day 1, and being part of the subscription service.

@Tharsman They never made a statement like this about after current agreements with the Bethesda purchase and what about the quote on the Nintendo switch?

"We are also interested in taking similar steps to support Nintendo’s successful platform. We believe this is the right thing for the industry, for gamers and for our business."

@UltimateOtaku91 Bethesda didn't have pending releases for the Switch.

Blizzard side of things has at least two titles announced for the Switch: Diablo (?) and Overwatch 2, plus they maintain Overwatch 1.

@Tharsman @UltimateOtaku91 Tony Hawk's, Diablo 2&3 (it doesn't look like 4 is announced for Switch), Crash, and Sypro are also on Switch.

Just read the entire blog post from Microsoft and it seems like this is one of the main things the regulators were questioning.

Also Microsoft go on to talk about their plans for the next generation gaming store and they want it on multiple other game stores as well, so we're potentially looking at he Microsoft store being on playstation with console games also available to purchase?

Also mentions a new legislation about app market competition

"This regulatory process begins while many governments are also moving forward with new laws to promote competition in app markets and beyond."

So basically playstation may have to allow the Microsoft store on its devices such as TV's and consoles and android phones to also have the Microsoft store etc this would be interesting as if future consoles have multiple stores and apps from competitors there could be no need to own multiple devices.

@UltimateOtaku91 But you like it when Sony does the very same and you said you'd rather have Google or Amazon buying Activision Blizzard instead of Microsoft (it's in one of your comments).

@Banjo- yes I did say that as in my opinion if Google or amazon bought a game company then it would be more likely its games would still come to playstation as when Microsoft bought Bethesda no new games will be coming to playstation or nintendo

I never said I like Sony to do the same as they never do, can't remember the last time sony bought a major studio and took games off xbox permanently, at least not whilst I've been into gaming, maybe insonmiac but even then they didn't have multiple million seller games on other consoles

If you don't want an exclusives war, stop making things like Starfield exclusive and freaking everyone out!

@UltimateOtaku91 Sony does moneyhatting which is much worse than acquiring studios (that both companies do), thus preventing third-party games that they haven't funded from coming to Xbox.

@UltimateOtaku91

So basically playstation may have to allow the Microsoft store on its devices such as TV's and consoles

At least for all I have heard, almost all these hearings and laws make a distinct line between general computing devices and game consoles, when it comes to these app markets. So this basically comes down to phone and computer operating systems allowing third party app stores being installed. Its practically a law targeted mostly at Apple iPhones, but also to a lesser degree at Android since they still make it VERY hard for common users to add third party app stores.

It's very unlikely this will impact console platforms, and also possibly unlikely for TVs.

@Banjo- everyone is in to moneyhatting, xbox with tomb raider, the gunk, the medium and Stalker 2

Nintendo with disgaea 6, octopath traveler, wonderful 101, dragon quest 11s version and monster hunter rise

PlayStation with persona, Forspoken and final fantasy

Let's not all pretend it's only sony that does it.

@Tharsman ah you're right when he mention it was for PCs, mobile phones and other general purpose computing devices I just thought that last one was consoles.

Though I think TV's will be all we need in the future anyway, I mean a smart tv has access to all current subscription based services like amazon prime, now tv, Disney plus etc and same will be with gaming ones, TV's will soon have gamepass, playstation now, Netflix gaming and Google stadia. It won't need to be about buying consoles in a decade or two

It’s an interesting direction they are going with this. Kind of odd to see companies playing nice and the fan boys ripping each other apart. Either way, more gamers get to enjoy and this also helps all those about the whole “Monopoly“ cries relax a bit.

@UltimateOtaku91 Tomb Raider LOL, Phil (the one you hate) was not even there. The Medium I doubt it because the PS5 version came 7 months later and they originally planned for release on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii U in 2012. They made it for Series X first because Microsoft gave them the development kits and they felt comfortable using them. Remember Sony keeping PS5 development kits away from indies? Stalker 2 will be exclusive for 3 months according to leaked documents so it doesn't seem moneyhatting either.

Sony fanboys see this as a huge win for PlayStation, and a big L for Xbox.

I’m not going to lie, as a 20 year Xbox fan who stuck with them through the lean years, this feels pretty crappy. They seemed much more worried about placating Sony fans than taking care of their own customers. I’m sure most will disagree with me, but that’s just how it feels. I’ll take the flaming.

Seems like Phil always wants to play nice, but Xbox and its fans never seem to get it in return.

Good thinking, MS will be profiting from sales of games and dlc on competing platforms. Win win

These games make too much money cross plat. It would not make any sense from a business perspective to cutoff the PS crowd.

Even Sony is seeing the profits just waiting to be made by making their games available to more people (pc).

The next "revelation" will be that COD will remain a yearly franchise.

I didnt read through all the comments. But this seriously sounds like Microsoft is saying.

Any existing contracts that Sony (or even Nintendo) made with Act/Bliz will be honored and all the games that have already appeared on their systems, ex: Cod 1 ~ Now will remain on PS/Nin systems as well as the future contract games will continue to remain on PS/Nin systems.

But what I read from Phil statement is just that. Meaning if Microsoft has Act/Blizz make a new game that isn't under the contract, be it CoD, Diablo, Warcraft or a new franchise there is no mention of those games going to Sony or Nintendo. Only past games already on their systems and the ones that fall under existing contracts

@TheGrizMan the whole "good for the industry" thing is just politics. It is really about charging $70 to millions of Sony players every year. They would lose a lot of money cutting them off. Call of Duty prints money, that is the whole reason Microsoft is buying this.

Going exclusive would convince some people to switch to xbox but most sony owners would stay on sony and play something else. Too many people play COD on sony to ignore.

Its not an L for xbox when they are swimming in profits from the games. Think of it as a funding source for other xbox studios to take risks on new ideas and additional gamepass content.

@Banjo-

Remember Sony keeping PS5 development kits away from indies?

Doubful this was the reason Medium was xbox exclusive. The same studio also released a PS5 and XSX optimized version of Observer at both consoles launches, pointing at them having PS5 dev kits well in advance.

Lets not cover the sky with a hand, Xbox is not shy to sign limited time exclusivity deals. The Gunk is on a different place, though, since it sounds it belongs to Xbox so that project might had been entirely bankrolled by Xbox (similar to Bayonetta 2+3 and Nintendo.)

Most Xbox timed exclusive deals tend to just be 6 months, though, and minor projects that potentially would not had seen the light of day without an injection of money from some deal.

It's been forever since Xbox signed a high profile timed exclusive.

@Tharsman facts. We’re getting mostly 2nd and 3rd tier games while Sony has LONG timed exclusives. And of course they moneyhat to keep some games off of Xbox altogether.

It is what it is at this point. They showed what and who they valued today. It’s a two-way street.

All MS has to do is release COD on Xbox a month before other platforms and they'll have 100% of streamers captured as well as the hardcore fanbase, and then they can release the game multi-platform to the masses to get the usual huge sales.

In what form? Need a Microsoft account on the other devices? Could work.

The more I think of this, the more I see this as a pen*s move. Sony has no problem taking games from Xbox, but Xbox has to keep its own games multiplatform?

***** this *****.

@Ashadelo while that’s mostly true I think they are keeping the big games that generate more revenue via MTXs multi. Like I’m sure the upcoming g Diablo and Overwatch 2 will be on everything.

That said if Toys for Bob worked on a new Spyro game etc that wouldn’t necessarily be going to PS. And whatever new IP Blizzard showed off the other day is also most likely exclusive.

I bet they will insist Game Pass is used to access those games on the other systems though. Which is pretty good anyway, you can have one system for your exclusives and play Game Pass games. What’s not to like?

Does anyone else feel like MS are gearing to do a SEGA or is it just me?

@mousieone well the Switch can run Doom Eternal with no obvious frame hiccups, albeit at 30fps, so I don't see why the switch can't run at least the call of duty legacy games from the 360 PS3 era and possibly some of the newer games aswell. Cod on the go with some multiplayer maps is a good fit

@Tharsman I don't cover anything, I'm stating facts. Of course, Microsoft buy and fund games, isn't that obvious? First of all, I didn't mention The Gunk, which probably received funds and a Game Pass deal. That's not moneyhatting a game that you didn't fund, which is my point about Sony. In regard to Tomb Raider, Phil was not Xbox boss, which is my point. That's moneyhatting before Phil Spencer, because his argument mixed Phil and Tomb Raider up. Blobber said that they made the Series X version first because Microsoft showed them a demo and provided the development kits. That's not moneyhatting either. Finally, it has been published by Digital Foundry that Sony were keeping the hardware and development kits away from indies for a longer time than Microsoft.

@Bmartin001 “Phil's a nice guy”

Jez?

@Ashadelo That's what I think as well. He is saying for a second time that they will respect the current deals, which is what he also said about Zenimax and he kept his promise. However, new Zenimax games are confirmed to be exclusive, including popular IPs like The Elder Scrolls.

The more ambiguous phrase is the second:

Microsoft will continue to make Call of Duty and other popular Activision Blizzard titles available on PlayStation through the term of any existing agreement with Activision. And we have committed to Sony that we will also make them available on PlayStation beyond the existing agreement and into the future so that Sony fans can continue to enjoy the games they love.

"Them" seems to refer to "titles". In this case, the titles through the term of any existing agreement. The most ambiguous part is "continue to enjoy the games they love" since Sony fans might love also other titles.

The ambiguity would be solved if he was clearer about exclusivity but he's not.. yet, for some reason. Caution? It also took a while for Phil to confirm that new Zenimax games will be exclusive but they will. Will the same happen? Will Phil confirm that the new games will be exclusive, including popular IPs? If not, why? Why would this be different from the Zenimax acquisition?

@Tharsman @Banjo- to add a few more of smiths comments

"One of the things we’re being very clear about as we move forward with the regulatory review of this acquisition is that great titles like Call of Duty from Activision Blizzard today, will continue to be available on the Sony PlayStation.

We’d like to bring it to Nintendo devices. We’d like to bring the other popular titles that Activision has, and ensure that they continue to be available on PlayStation, [and] that they become available on Nintendo."

" The first acquisition made after Satya Nadella became CEO was of Minecraft. That was back in September 2014. And what we’ve done with that acquisition, I think is a clear indicator of what we hope to do if we acquire Activision Blizzard.

Namely, invest even more in innovation, bring it to more people, bring it to more platforms, make it even more useful and hopefully delightful for the people who use it."

To me that sounds like future new games from Activision will be coming to playstation and even Nintendo consoles, they are treating Activision like Minecraft but instead of one game its an whole catalogue of games they want to keep multi platform

Whatever the answer to my last questions is, I think that Phil will be clear when the acquisition is nearly completed and can't be cancelled.

@Banjo- these two guys are bove Phil though so there's more weight in their words than phils, though we will have to wait and see, it could take years until we see if what they say comes true

I'm really hoping that they mean like ps kept cod content exclusive for 12 months ,Xbox should do the same with the games .they didn't lie they will go to ps just not at the same time as Xbox

This is good news for gamers, but this is definitely not just because they want the world to feel good.

They are doing everything they can to try and head off the anti trust and monopolies investigation into this deal. As part of this 'charm offensive', they have also rolled out a whole suite of commitments as to how they will run their store and make it different from Googles or Apples too.

I have no doubt that if they were not being looked at so hard by the regulators they would never make these statements and they would make the IP's locked to their platform once contracts have been fulfilled.

Not hugely bothered either way as I have a foot in all camps and will always have a chance to play any game. What this does show though, is that in some respect these anti competitive laws do work. Microsoft are scrambling backwards in order to not have the deal scuppered and consumers will have more choice as a result. That's a big win in my book, regardless of how it affects Microsoft.

Its also a response to the narrative that Sony's last major purchase did not remove games from any consumer, somehow making them 'less mean spirited'. We all know that's some serious BS and Sony would not have gotten the deal unless they agreed to keep bungie IP multiplat, but your average Joe wont see that, just that Sony is keeping IP's open and MS wasn't. Its ironic given that Sony have engaged in 'IP gating' for so long, but the latest moves are always the current narrative.

Surprising since Sony ate them alive last generation, even buying a lot of timed exclusive games like Deathloop, Ghostwire Tokyo and also trying to get Starfield & keeping them off Xbox. Now MS is spending a lot of money and suddenly the rules have changed? So weird, even with the exclusive COD deals before ... Unless Sony is going to have to pay big bucks (more than usual) to get those multiplats or MS will try to turn COD into another great franchise but exclusive to Xbox? I wonder what their initial thoughts were when trying to obtain AB.

@armondo36 This is the reason I haven't bought Sony console in many years.

@Banjo- Not sure how you define money hatting, but the point is MS is indeed paying for timed exclusives. They just do it for shorter windows and for lower profile games (likely because the larger studios are not willing to bet on such deals with their large games on the platform that is not #1.)

I mentioned the Gunk because it was already in conversation, you didn't mention it but @UltimateOtaku91 did.

As for The Medium, Digital foundry statements about dev kits are not relevant with them because there is indisputable proof that they did have dev kits (the studio released a PS5 optimized remake that launched with the PS5, day one!)

Look, I'm a fan of xbox, it's my main console right now, but let's not ignore things either.

@UltimateOtaku91 based on new title and organizational structure, there is only one guy in Microsoft that is above Phil right now and its Nadella.

@Tharsman I don't "cover" nor "ignore" anything, if you were right I'd say it and I wouldn't mind it.

@Titntin @Pusher2021 Yep, it's actually weird to see Sony trying to block big and small third-party games and keeping them away from Xbox and then saying that Bungie games will be multiplatform. Both Phil and Brad are being ambiguous about future Activision Blizzard games, carefully choosing the words "available" "would like"... This generation is like a cold war.

@SecretAgentCat do you really want your console to be called "playbox"?

@RevGaming next gen is probably 6-8 years away

@elpardo1984 @RevGaming @thegamingduck Guys, it was just a joke. I was joking, you know, ROFL’s & LOL’s! Sheesh, tough crowd. Lol

@SecretAgentCat I wasn't mad.

@RevGaming I know, I was just hoping for at least one LOL. I thought it was funny.