Sony agrees to a Call of Duty deal with Microsoft

theverge.com:

By Tom Warren, a senior editor covering Microsoft, PC gaming, console, and tech. He founded WinRumors, a site dedicated to Microsoft news, before joining The Verge in 2012.

Sony has agreed to a deal for Call of Duty with Microsoft to keep the franchise on PlayStation after the proposed Activision Blizzard acquisition. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer says Sony and Microsoft have agreed to a “binding agreement” to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation. It’s not immediately clear if this is a 10-year deal, like Microsoft has signed with Nintendo and other cloud providers.

This ends a bitter battle between the companies that has been waged both privately and publicly over the past year after Microsoft announced its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard in January 2022.

The deal could be similar to a 10-year agreement between Microsoft and Nintendo as well as the various deals Microsoft has struck with cloud gaming platforms to bring Call of Duty to rival services, but Microsoft isn’t commenting on the terms of the deal right now.

Sony had resisted signing a Call of Duty deal with Microsoft after the company first offered a 10-year contract in December 2022. Instead, in filings to regulators, Sony has repeatedly maintained that it fears Microsoft could make Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox or even sabotage the PlayStation versions of the game.

But we heard a bombshell email from PlayStation chief Ryan read out in court during the FTC v. Microsoft hearing, revealing that he wasn’t actually worried about Call of Duty exclusivity and was “pretty sure we will continue to see Call of Duty on PlayStation for many years to come.” Microsoft’s lawyers argued Ryan didn’t initially have concerns about the deal and had spoken to Xbox