As part of their efforts to get their proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard approved by regulators, Microsoft has been facing off with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in court the past couple days. The FTC wants to impose an injunction that would prevent Microsoft and Activision from closing the deal before a more crucial trial in August that would determine if the FTC has an antitrust case.
Yesterday, court documents provided some juicy tidbits, including that future Bethesda games may come to PlayStation consoles, and an admission from Microsoft itself that Xbox has lost the console wars. Today, Xbox boss Phil Spencer took the stand, and he’s had a lot of things to say, touching on the uncertain exclusivity status of The Elder Scrolls VI and the role Starfield played in the acquisition of Bethesda.
Of course, all that is really a sideshow. This legal wrangling is really about Call of Duty and whether Microsoft plans to lock the ultra-popular franchise down. Phil Spencer and Microsoft have said time and time again that’s not their plan and that they’ve offered Sony 10 years of CoD on PlayStation, but is it all a ploy? Will tricky Phil change his mind once the Acti-Blizz deal is approved? Well, as of today Spencer has officially pledged under oath and potential legal penalty that he has no secret plan to pull Call of Duty from PlayStation. If they sign the deal offered, they’ll get 10 years of CoD, no catches.
“I think as we’ve seen even in preparation for this that gamers are an active and vocal group. Us pulling Call of Duty from PlayStation in my view would create irreparable harm for the Xbox brand.
I would raise my hand. I will do whatever it takes. We have no plan. I’m making a commitment standing here that we will not pull Call of Duty – it is my testimony – from PlayStation. As you said, Sony obviously has to allow us to ship the game on their platform, but absent any of that, my commitment is, and my testimony is that we will continue to ship future versions of Call of Duty on Sony’s PlayStation 5.”
Wait, wait – he specifically said PS5! What about PS6?! Seriously though, Spencer really can’t state things any clearer than this. Perhaps there’s some legitimate debate to be had that Microsoft originally planned to lock Call of Duty down when this whole process began, but at this point, it seems they’re solidly committed to keeping the series multiplatform. If they aren’t, Phil Spencer just perjured himself.
I’m sure even more juicy details will come out of Microsoft and the FTC’s legal wrangling, and we here at Wccftech will keep you updated on the latest.
