Phil Spencer says he’s ‘open to committing’ to Sony that CoD will stay on PlayStation longer term
Microsoft’s head of gaming has stated that he’s open to making a commitment to Sony and regulators that Call of Duty will stay on PlayStation on a longer-term basis than currently agreed.
Speaking on The Verge’s Decoder podcast, Phil Spencer explained that he was open to making a commitment that would make Sony and global regulators happy, as Microsoft continues to await approval for its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
“This idea that we would write a contract that says the word ‘forever’ in it, I think, is a little bit silly,” Spencer said, “but to make a longer-term commitment that Sony would be comfortable with, [that] regulators would be comfortable with, I have no issue with that at all.”
This appears to be the first time Spencer has suggested that Microsoft might be willing to make clear concessions, as regulars (including those in the UK and EU) have been expanding their investigation into the proposed deal.
Attempting to clarify that there were no tricks or loopholes to his statement, Spencer added: “We think Call of Duty will be on PlayStation as long as players want to play Call of Duty on PlayStation. And that’s not a competitive threat against PlayStation, that’s just a pragmatic way of looking at it.”
When the podcast’s host Nilay Patel appeared to start suggesting that Xbox could get around this by offering a streaming-only version on PlayStation, Spencer quickly interrupted to clarify: “Native Call of Duty on PlayStation, not linked to them having to carry Game Pass.
“If they want a streaming version of Call of Duty we could do that as well, just like we do on our own consoles,” Spencer said. “There is nothing behind my back.”
Continuing to clarify further, Spencer added: “It is the Call of Duty
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