“Call of Duty [will Remain] on Sony’s PlayStation 5” Testifies Phil Spencer Under Oath

wccftech.com:

As part of their efforts to get their proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard approved by regulators, Microsoft has been facing off with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in court the past couple days. The FTC wants to impose an injunction that would prevent Microsoft and Activision from closing the deal before a more crucial trial in August that would determine if the FTC has an antitrust case.

Yesterday, court documents provided some juicy tidbits, including that future Bethesda games may come to PlayStation consoles, and an admission from Microsoft itself that Xbox has lost the console wars. Today, Xbox boss Phil Spencer took the stand, and he’s had a lot of things to say, touching on the uncertain exclusivity status of The Elder Scrolls VI and the role Starfield played in the acquisition of Bethesda.

Of course, all that is really a sideshow. This legal wrangling is really about Call of Duty and whether Microsoft plans to lock the ultra-popular franchise down. Phil Spencer and Microsoft have said time and time again that’s not their plan and that they’ve offered Sony 10 years of CoD on PlayStation, but is it all a ploy? Will tricky Phil change his mind once the Acti-Blizz deal is approved? Well, as of today Spencer has officially pledged under oath and potential legal penalty that he has no secret plan to pull Call of Duty from PlayStation. If they sign the deal offered, they’ll get 10 years of CoD, no catches.

“I think as we’ve seen even in preparation for this that gamers are an active and vocal group. Us pulling Call of Duty from PlayStation in my view would create irreparable harm for the Xbox brand.

I would raise my hand. I will do whatever it takes. We have no plan. I'm making a commitment