Microsoft suggests Call of Duty would be optimised for PlayStation if its Activision deal goes through

videogameschronicle.com:

Microsoft has suggested that it will make full use of PlayStation consoles’ features when releasing Call of Duty games for Sony systems, should its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard go through.

In its latest response to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Microsoft claims that not only will it guarantee full feature parity on PlayStation consoles, but that the versions on Sony’s systems may have more features than on Xbox.

The most notable example of this is the use of haptic feedback on the PlayStation 5‘s DualSense controller, something not offered with the Xbox Series X/S controller.

Microsoft’s response implies that any future Call of Duty games released on PlayStation consoles would still include that feature, even if it made the PlayStation version superior.

“The Parties note, in particular, that there is no basis in the Provisional Findings for what would essentially amount to a “beyond parity” obligation, requiring Microsoft to develop a PlayStation version of CoD which has more features than the Xbox version,” the company writes.

It goes on to explain that the concern being raised by Sony is that a PlayStation version of Call of Duty published by Microsoft could see the Xbox company including “fewer features” or “degrading the graphical quality”, but claims that in reality it’s in Microsoft’s best interests to release the best version of the game it can so more people will buy it.

“As Microsoft will be shipping CoD on PlayStation in compliance with its remedy commitments [redacted], Microsoft will have every incentive to develop games with optimised support for PS5 features, such as haptics, and future consoles in order to maximise sales on the platform,” it claimed.

Sony claimed earlier this