Reaction: What Happens to PlayStation if Microsoft Buys Activision Blizzard? | Push Square

pushsquare.com:

Well, then – here we are. As perhaps even eternal optimists may have anticipated, US regulator the Federal Trade Commission has lost its case against Microsoft, meaning there’ll be no preliminary injunction to prevent the acquisition from closing before its 18th July deadline. And in dramatic fashion, the house of cards has subsequently collapsed, with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority effectively admitting that it’ll return to the table to renegotiate with the Redmond firm.

While we’re still sceptical of speaking in definitives – this entire saga has brought about more twists and turns than a sensationalist Netflix documentary – it’s looking like the $69 billion buyout is now on the precipice. And therefore it’s probably an appropriate moment to consider what the deal closing would actually mean for PlayStation, and what its next moves are likely to be. After all, we’re all viewing this deal through the lens of being PS5 and PS4 owners, so it’s worth discussing.

In the short-term, the answer is fairly obvious: very little. Even in the unlikely event of the deal closing tomorrow – and it won’t, because the Xbox maker still needs to work through those aforementioned issues with the CMA – it’ll take a considerable amount of time for the publisher to be integrated under Microsoft’s umbrella. Moreover, Sony still has marketing rights to this year’s Call of Duty game, and the Redmond firm has obviously committed to ensuring the franchise remains multiformat for at least a decade.

That means even in 2033, you’ll still be able play Call of Duty on PlayStation – and that’s assuming the franchise retains its enduring popularity, because there’s obviously no guarantee it will. As for other Activision Blizzard titles,