Phil Spencer Commits To Call Of Duty On Future PlayStations

gameranx.com:

A big moment happened in the FTC federal case vs the Microsoft Activision deal last Friday. Phil Spencer’s commitment to Call of Duty on future PlayStation consoles became a big deal, not just because of the commitment itself, but because it may have already decided this case.

This all starts while Phil is under cross-examination in the middle of the trial. He explained why Microsoft was publishing games on PlayStation in the first place. And then, as recorded by Florian Mueller in his live tweets thread, Phil explained the situation with Call of Duty on PlayStation:

“Spencer: If a game is already loved by customers on a platform, they want to nurture and grow that for the games they build. When building a new game that has no customers today, thinking about maximizing creative capability while minimizing cost of production.

Phil Spencer, asked by Microsoft’s own attorney, explains again that losing CoD on its largest console platform would not be economically viable.

Says Microsoft partners with PS incredibly well outside of this deal (meaning outside the merger review stuff).

Spencer: pulling CoD from PS in my view would create irreparable harm to Xbox’s brand (because of gamer outrage).

Judge Corley asks to testify under oath that future versions of CoD will be made available for PS. Spencer: absolutely. Will raise my hand.”

It was this last moment that is relevant to us now. When Spencer made that commitment, it was understood that he was under oath, and lying on that oath is a possible charge of perjury. As explained in this law firm’s website, perjury is a felony punishable by as much as four years in jail, not a charge to be taken lightly.

To complicate matters, this particularly puts pressure on Phil, because if