What you need to know
- Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer was a guest on the Official Xbox Podcast, where he talked about bringing Activision Blizzard King into Xbox now that the deal is done.
- Spencer reiterated that there is not a "no goal" to use Call of Duty to get PlayStation players to purchase an Xbox console through exclusive skins, timed exclusivity on betas, or other piecemeal efforts.
- Call of Duty is contractually guaranteed to ship as a multiplatform franchise for the next 10 years, and the teams are working on bringing the series back to Nintendo platforms.
Call of Duty isn't leaving PlayStation, in case that hasn't been hammered home yet.
Microsoft Gaming CEO and Xbox boss Phil Spencer reiterated this yet again during an episode of the Official Xbox Podcast, where he discussed the Call of Duty franchise and its community now that Activision Blizzard is officially part of Xbox.
"For Call of Duty players on PlayStation and in the future on Nintendo, I want you to feel 100% part of the community. I don't want you to feel there's content you're missing out on, there's skins you're out [on], there's timing you're missing out [on]," Spencer explains, adding that "the goal is 100% parity," in regards to game content.
Spencer does acknowledge that technical details like resolution and framerate may vary based on what a platform is capable of, but "that's it," with the Xbox head saying that timed content and restrictions don't help the community or the games.
Since 2015's Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, PlayStation has had marketing rights for the Call of Duty series, with aggressive timed exclusivity around map packs, beta access, and more. Before PlayStation, this was a deal that Xbox held, which ended with 2014's Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is the next entry in the juggernaut first-person shooter franchise, and it's slated to launch on Nov. 10, 2023 across Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4.
Analysis: Maybe people will believe him now?
Spencer has made many, many, many comments around this in the past, consistently insisting that Microsoft doesn't want to take Call of Duty away from PlayStation. Him not being believed was one of the biggest issues the U.S. FTC had with the acquisition, culminating in some choice arguments being made in the Microsoft vs. FTC court hearing.
Now that Activision is part of the Xbox first-party group and Spencer is again saying this, I think this is a topic that can be put to rest.
