Microsoft Believes Sony Could Make a Call of Duty Competitor in a Decade

gamerant.com:

It shouldn't take more than 10 years for Sony to produce a viable Call of Duty competitor, according to Microsoft. The spat between the two gargantuan gaming companies continues to escalate over the issue of Microsoft attempting to acquire Activision Blizzard, with the Xbox company having come up with an all-new batch of arguments to solidify its case.

While many gaming studios support Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, it's only natural that the company's biggest rival wouldn't be quite so keen on accepting it. Over the past months, Sony has come up with a whole slew of reasons why the deal should not go through without major changes to, for example, Activision Blizzard's held IP rights, and Call of Duty is at the center of it all.

Group Behind Activision Blizzard Union-Busting Lawsuit Contacts EU Regulators About Microsoft Acquisition

Microsoft just released a fairly heavily redacted response to the UK's Competition and Markets Authority on the topic of whether Activision Blizzard should keep Call of Duty, in the event that the acquisition gets greenlit by all the pertinent authorities. One of the most interesting comments Microsoft issued via this document is that the company believes Sony would be more than capable of producing a solid alternative to the Call of Duty franchise over the course of the next 10 years.

This information should be considered with additional context, of course. Specifically, Microsoft offered Sony a 10-year COD deal, during which time the franchise would remain available on PlayStation consoles. Sony did not accept it, however, and continued issuing statements in an attempt to put the deal in a negative light with authorities. The aforementioned document has come about as a