Call of Duty’s next three games will hit PlayStation despite Microsoft’s Activision deal

theverge.com:

Activision plans to release at least the next three Call of Duty games on both Sony and Microsoft consoles, Bloomberg reports. The new report should be a sigh of relief to fans who were worried Microsoft would immediately make new Call of Duty games Xbox exclusive if its blockbuster acquisition of Activision goes through.

According to Bloomberg, Activision had already committed to bring “the next few” Call of Duty titles to PlayStation sometime before Microsoft’s acquisition was announced. Last week, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said he told Sony that Microsoft wants to “keep Call of Duty on PlayStation” and that the company intends to honor existing agreements, so it seems like Activision’s commitment with Sony will stay in place. The upcoming Call of Duty games coming to PlayStation will apparently include a new Modern Warfare game from Infinity Ward this year, the next Call of Duty game from Treyarch, and a “planned new iteration” of the free-to-play battle royale shooter Call of Duty: Warzone.

However, we’re still a long ways out from Activision officially becoming a Microsoft-owned studio, meaning the fate of the Call of Duty series isn’t set in stone just yet. The acquisition isn’t expected to close until sometime in Microsoft’s 2023 fiscal year, which begins on July 1st and ends on June 30th, 2023.

If the acquisition goes through, we still don’t know if Microsoft plans to make the Call of Duty series Xbox exclusive long-term — and previous acquisitions show that the company is willing to take different approaches with its franchises. While Microsoft will only be releasing Bethesda’s Starfield on Xbox and PC, Minecraft remains available on many platforms.

Activision, Microsoft, and Sony didn’t immediately