Will Call of Duty become an Xbox exclusive and should PS5 owners be worried?

pocket-lint.com:

(Pocket-lint) — It would be an understatement to suggest the games world was shocked by the announcement that Microsoft is buying Activision Blizzard. So many questions popped up soon after the $68.7 billion deal was made public.

Will the sale put paid to the toxic workplace culture the third-party publisher is accused of? Is it wise to consolidate the games making industry, resulting in a handful of major publishers? And, perhaps most commonly, does it mean that Activision and Blizzard games will become Xbox exclusives?

We'll let others answer and speculate on the first two. Let's just say we very much hope that the new Activision Blizzard will become a better, friendlier place to work for all under Xbox stewardship.

But, as for PlayStation console owners, are they right to be worried? Here are our thoughts.

Xbox announced on Tuesday 18 January 2022 that it has agreed to purchase the largest and one of the oldest third-party games publishers, Activision Blizzard, in a deal worth $68.7 billion (around £50 billion).

Not expected to be finalised until June 2023, the deal is the biggest yet in Microsoft's history and will result in Activision Blizzard and all of its development arms becoming part of Xbox Game Studios and reporting to Xbox chief, Phil Spencer.

It might not be ratified, of course. Although a US company remaining in the hands of a US company, rather than acquired by the Japanese Sony, say, could be enough for the government in the States to rubberstamp it.

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If successful, it will mean — at the very least — Activision and Blizzard games, including the Call of Duty back catalogue, will be added to Xbox Game Pass. As Spencer wrote in his