According to a spokesperson who told the The Wall Street Journal, Sony still expects Microsoft to “abide by contractual agreements and continue to ensure Activision games are multiplatform.” Although it’s not a public statement or blog post on an official channel, it is still Sony’s first attempt to address a move that sent the company’s stock prices on a massive decline. Having said that, Sony’s expectations should not come as a surprise. Arkane Studios still fulfilled its obligation to make Deathloop a PS5-exclusive despite Microsoft’s earlier buyout of ZeniMax Media. The same goes for Tango Gameworks and Ghostwire: Tokyo, which is expected to launch in March. Unfortunately, this also means that we can’t expect Microsoft to honor current agreements after they expire. It’s worth noting that Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI are all going to be exclusive to the Xbox Series S/X once they hit the market sometime in the future. We wouldn’t be surprised if the same thing happens to Activision-Blizzard games from any one of its massive franchises down the line. You could argue that the biggest question mark is with Call of Duty. Sony and Activision have worked together closely for more than five years. It’s certainly not a good look when the last two Call of Duty games were the best-selling titles for the PS4 and PS5 for two years and now the games are owned by one of your biggest competitors. Worse still is that Microsoft will own two of the biggest shooters in the world in Halo and Call of Duty. Not to mention, Microsoft has had a close working relationship with Electronic Arts for a while. Once Microsoft closes its deal and officially acquires Activision Blizzard, all bets are off. We wouldn’t be surprised if 2023’s Call of Duty game doesn’t make its way to the PS5. Perhaps now is the best time for Sony to call up Guerilla Games and make a new Killzone game. Of course, this is all just speculation. At the end of the day, Microsoft knows how the video game industry works. If making Call of Duty exclusive to the Xbox Series S/X ends up hurting its sales or Halo, Microsoft will go for a multiplatform release. Unfortunately, we can’t say the same for the likes of Overwatch, Diablo, and maybe even a console port of World of Warcraft.
