Sony and Microsoft Sign a 'Binding Agreement' to Keep Call of Duty on PlayStation

They were never pulling it from PS to begin with but glad to see it in writing now, and looking forward to moving on from this

Phil and Jim skipping down the street holding hands, Finally!

I guess too much money was on the line for Sony to call Microsoft's bluff. If Microsoft had no intention of removing Call of Duty, as they stated under oath, there would have been no need for an agreement.

Or, maybe Microsoft offered a very compelling deal much better than simply keeping Call of Duty on PlayStation for ten years such as a longer timeframe, or a commitment to parity.

In any case, it's truly unfortunate regulators were unable or unwilling to stop this disaster. Since Microsoft was not shown a red line, there's nothing keeping them from continuing to buy up publishers in their quest to buy their way to dominance.

If Jim had not been so greedy, they would had managed to secure absolutely all existing IP remained on PS, not just CoD.

We now know that Phill actually offered that for all IP that had shipped on PS4, meaning also all future entries of games like Crash and Spyro. But no, Jimmy wanted everything, even Bethesda games, to sign a deal. Now, they only end up getting CoD.

Editing the post with source:

Link

Bend the knee

All this drama for nothing, lol.

Ppl forgetting there was no 10 year deal before Jim started advocating for Playstation players.

@STOBO there was a deal, and it included all ABK IP that had already shown on PS. It was not a 10 year deal, but it was always meant to be renewed. 10 years is way above what anyone in their same mind would sign under normal situations.

So maybe Jim’s lobbying resulted in them not having to worry about renewing for 10 years, but now PS players are 100% at MS mercy if they ever hope to see another Crash, Spyro or Tony Hawk game on PS.

In all honesty, 10 years is a long while, and while COD has been king for what 16 years now in that area, things change dramatically. New generations of gamers are what will decide the fate of future games and series. Who knows what will happen.

Should of just signed the deal at the start, like most people with a brain said. Its been a poor show on Playstations part.

They got nothing extra, just some bad PR and Jim had a nightmare in court. Infact i believe the deal is now worse as they only get COD, and not the other IPs, which I believe was offered at the start. They have played a howler

Despite this I'm sure Jim is still very upset about all this, he was never worried about losing cod but instead worried about cod going to GP on day one plus no preferential treatment with dlc.

@MightyDemon82 lol! "why do birds suddenly appear, everytime you are near" playing in the background 😂

I honestly don't see how Microsoft ever thought making CoD exclusive would be profitable for them. It's sooo much easier for people to stop playing a game than it is to buy hardware dedicated to that singular device. They would have seen a HUGE dip in sales and player numbers had they ever done so. And it would have made making back their investment that much harder for them. It never made business sense to me. At all.

I think Sony's concerns about bugs and all that... That's actually fair. Look at how Microsoft has handled ITS OWN IPS on its own platforms. They're not exactly consistently stellar. I think they had every right in the world to be concerned that Microsoft, barely able to manage its own content natively, would ever bother to dedicate necessary resources to make cross-platform titles a priority.

Microsoft is generally pretty ***** bad at the game making part of being a videogame maker. They think of all this ***** as content and services and that's rightfully quite scary to Sony, who still has a lot invested in games as a medium/experience/art form.

@Tharsman Do you have a link to an article discussing this apparent deal? I’ve only ever heard about one for Call of Duty, not every IP.

@MFTWrecks it's not about being profitable. It's about destroying the competition by whatever means necessary. Something many companies do when they can afford to. So I don't think MS would have kept CoD on Playstation if they didn't have to. Hence why they said 10 years.

@Sakai you forget to take into account of all the negative PR that MS has gotten over this. Several people here alone have said they're not touching an MS console again after their gamepass subscription expires. And all this attention probably made it harder for MS to acquire yet another publisher soon after Bethesda and Activision.

I care way more about what's going to happen with Crash and especially Spyro.

This is still going to overall be a challenge for Sony. They will continue to profit from PSN sales of the biggest selling game, but those sales numbers will end up being a lot less. MS wouldn’t be paying $70 billion (and Sony wouldn’t have tried to block it) if people thought this would just keep the status quo. Players will leave PlayStation and GamePass will grow. Now Sony need to respond somehow.

As long as the binding agreement stipulates that this cannot just be via Gamepass, which I presume it does as Sony would be morons to sign otherwise. Hopefully also gives provision for it to release on Extra at a fair market price.

This is not because I care about CoD, but rather because I care about maintaining competition.

I don't mind Phil Spencer, I just don't like all his hypocrisy. He says "We look forward to a future where players globally have more choice to play their favorite games." Meanwhile, the ABK deal is literally doing the exact opposite.

@Shepherd_Tallon I assume he's talking about the lip service along the lines of "games that have a legacy on PS". However, I think it was intentionally vague and suggests that only the ongoing games like ESO etc. will still see support, not new entries in a series like Wolfenstein and such. That's how I read it at least. I'm not aware of a deal that includes all ABK owned IPs either.

I can’t wait for this to be officially over. If i never hear about this deal again it will be too soon.

@thefourfoldroot1 I wonder what a Ps+ extra deal would look like at "fair market value." Surely it would still need to be the largest such contract ever to bring call of duty day 1. We've never seen a 3rd party title of that magnitude day 1 on gamepass or extra.

@Tharsman
I call bull. Have any link to that statement from MS/Sony?

Hopefully all Activision Blizzard games remain on PS for now.

That had to be an awkward phone call between Jim Ryan and Phil Spencer.

"So uh, is that deal still available? No hard feelings for all the fuss and lies."

This does nothing to alleviate concerns over the long-term impact (past 10 years) that this will have on the industry. This is just more lip service to distract short sighted people.

It is interesting that while Sony evolved from electronic goods company, to console maker, to video game publisher and developer, Microsoft is basically paying someone else to write a thesis and somehow get a degree 🤔

If you are interested in giving gamers more choice please port Starfield to PS5.

@Tharsman jim Ryan was apparently trying to leverage other IP into the deal but it never was offered by MS.

Makes sense too for MS to not entertain that if Jim Ryan's only complaint to regulators was CoD then the other IP are irrelevant.

Surely Phil would have included that in his tweet if it was more than CoD.

@LiamCroft found it:
Link
edit: removing redundancy, moved my quotes to my original post.

@thefourfoldroot1 see my post above.

@LiamCroft "Now the $69 billion acquisition looks set to go through"

Forgive me but I was on vacation out of country for a week, is the deal done in the UK now as well? Last I read they were still bribing, I mean talking. with the CMA or whatever that organization is called to get the deal done. You guys always seem to mention the UK in these MS articles and I was surprised not to se it mentioned. 🤷‍♂️

@rjejr Microsoft and the CMA are now trying to work out a deal with the UK situation. I believe something’s supposed to happen in the next few days, possibly as soon as tomorrow.

This deal basically slams the door on the post closing trial for the FTC that is technically still scheduled for August. The FTC would have been highly unlikely to have impacted the deal afterwards anyway but this officially throws out their main point.

@LiamCroft sorry for the reply spam but was able to read more into the second email in the linked tweet and edited my post accordingly. It seems Phil's refusal to consider this that really discouraged Jim from considering a deal.

We shall see. I have trouble believing the "word" of companies. But, by then it will be too late and MS laughs all the way to the bank. I still think this deal is terrible for consumers.

@TheCollector316 Talk about being over dramatic…

Regulators did try to stop this but the unequivocally conclusion was that this deal is not anticompetitive, and in fact it will spark way more competition in a market where Sony has comfortably been the market leader for the past decade and many of us argue they’ve been too complacent about it, I’m open to see new competition as we’ll be the ones who benefit the most when Sony starts to compete more aggressively.

And of course there’s plenty to keep them for buying more publishers, after spending 70 billion dollars do you think they’ll look to spend another 50B in buying EA or Take Two? Of course not.
And even if they do, after clearing this there’s absolutely no way that regulators will allow them to buy another big publisher like that, sure, they will continue to buy smaller studios, but this is it for publishers.

Nice of Xbox to throw PlayStation some scraps. Nom Nom

@STOBO like ryan made his happen ?
The 10 yr deals were made for the regulators not cause jym Ryan did it Lmfao
In jyms words

"I don’t want a new Call of Duty deal. I just want to block your merger.”

Also have you read his email to Xbox ? No ? Oh yeh this site hasn't published it

He wanted a lot more than just cod and didn't get it ,he wanted Xbox to keep everything multiplatform and off gamepass and any Bethesda games ( starfield for eg )

@SgtTruth Actually no, Nintendo famously screwed Sony up that time. They revealed they intended to go with Philips on the same day Sony unveiled the snes CD add-on “PlayStation”.

I am not saying there are good or bad guys but if you look at their arc Sony actually blossomed into a videogame developer, making their own titles, something people have latched onto…Microsoft is just buying pre-existing assets by other companies.

@Tharsman Fair, that is indeed what the email said. Thanks!

Interested to see if Sony tries to buy someone too just to show "we also have money hurrrr". Square Enix?

@get2sammyb I'm very curious too. The email exchange they had also pointed at Jim's desire to end CoD marketing deal early, that would revert the revenue share to the standard 30/70 from 20/80, but also would mean this year's CoD would no longer be held by PS market exclusivity deals, no exclusive DLC, early access, nor any blocks on MS adding it to Game Pass.

Honestly, if I was MS (not Xbox,) I would had insisted on keeping the deal as it would make certain more money flows towards their coffers, and delay Game Pass "sales cannibalization" by a year. We do also know from testimony this deal was only green-lit with the goals that it will instantly start flowing money in.

I don't think we will find out if the deal involves any other existing IP, because doing that would be as good as announcing the sequels potentially too early.

@Tharsman

“ The agreement would keep all existing Activation console titles on Sony, including future versions in the Call of Duty franchise or any other current Activation franchise on Sony, through December 31, 2027. ”

This is basically saying anything that is currently on the platform or in production. This isn’t related to the more recent 10 year agreement (hence only being until 2027, which was 5 years away at the time).

I think most people were looking beyond that. But fair point, they did appear to discuss other franchises also further back in the discussions, before the time scale was extended, at which point it seems MS balked at it.

@Somebody yeh I agree like they did with Nvidia deal , cod /acti and Xbox games coming to their service

I don't think general consumers are going to be affected much by this. And that was the point of the hearing. Sony fans, of course will be affected. Their God has been denied lol, but everyone else, it's just another Saturday.

@Somebody I think the FTCs appeals are largely done from what I’ve been reading. I’m sure there’s other appeals but from what I’ve been reading their appeal after last week has already been thrown out and they(MS) are free to proceed(subject to the CMA)

@TheCollector316 The OG deal had parity, and Sony still refused, in lecked e-mails from the court we saw that Jim Ryan tried to get a deal for EVERY ABK AND Bethesda game and Microsoft refused, after that they wanted the deal to fail, Sony did not get want they wanted, and now they probably just think is better to have it on paper.

@Tharsman the funny thing is this email was big news and now you have editors of this site asking u questions on a email they decided not to publish due to it being negative to jym Ryan maybe ?

PlayStation summer showcase II incoming?

Let's see some big exclusives that we actually care about now 😅

Time to move on and pretend that subscriptions aren't ruining entertainment and that Italy isn't melting. Tra la la everything is going to be okay

So whos up next to buy? EA ? Square? or will Microsoft just buy everything up?

@Ravix - The theory that Sony hide stuff is amazing, to be honest. Folks simply can't believe that Sony wasn't ready to show most of their stuff (even more now that said they plan to reveal stuff much closer to release).

People really need to get used to that. We'll get some years VERY light in terms of announcements and releases coming from Sony.

@Martsmall lets be fair, it was a very busy news week and the trial was not all editors here had to cover. We have the luxury to focus on our topics of interest, but the editors here have a whole industry to cover, and as noisy as this deal has been, there is a lot more they need to cover every single day.

Plus, info on the case was dense as hell.

There are tons of tidbits that didn't get cover by Push Square or Pure Xbox. You had to follow a ton of sources to get a full picture.

@MightyDemon82 instead of Rosie and Jim it's Phil and Jim on their Rosy Old Boat.

Cool I guess, I prefer hifi rush rather than cod though

Was sitting on the toilet when I read this breaking news which pretty much sums it all up for me tbh. Can't remember the last time I've actually played an ActiBlizzKing game and im pretty confident in saying I've never ever played a Blizzard or King game in all my gaming life. Glad it's ActiBlizzKing and not Ubisoft, Sega, EA or Konami they're buying. Having said that they'll probably all be purchased by Monopolysoft in 15 years time

@SgtTruth very well put, this is exactly my view owning both consoles (and a Switch)

@LightningLeader a small piece of money from each copy sold? They’ll get the largest piece, which the standard 30% markup or whatever going to Sony

Sony need to buy square enix and make Nintendo sign a contract because they help screw sony over with this deal.

Revive socom to be a squad based shooter not to imitate cod but strike a good balance of popular shooters. needs loads of game modes

@LiamCroft Thanks, I'll keep an eye out. Does seem likely at this point the CMA will cave, fold, give in, whatever, despite their long history of not doing so.

“We look forward to a future where players globally have more choice to play their favorite games”

Phil you know cod was on PS before right? He’s so full of ****

For single player games this deal won't mean much, ABK are pretty much fully focused on making live service games, I mean Overwatch 2, Diablo, Call of duty, Candy Crush, Hearthstone and World of Warcraft are all live service games, heck they have even turned crash bandicoot into a live service game. And I can promise you now if they were to make a new skylanders game it will 100% be a live service game where you pay for in game characters and battle passes instead of selling physical toys like previous games.

Spyro is dead, Starcraft hasn't seen a new release in 6 years and diablo games take 10+ years to make. When was the last fully single player game (with no live service elements) they released?

Also if Microsoft were to release more games then they would bave to reduce the amount of studios working on call of duty games to free them up, meaning call of duty won't become a yearly release, and quite possibly be released every 3-4 years meaning they will lose a LOT of money, it's a double edge decision, make more single player games from their IP library but lose COD money.

With Call of duty staying on playstation for the foreseeable future and diablo 4 just being released and overwatch 2 being f2p meaning future ones will be as well, what are playstation players really losing here?

Excellent, hopefully Microsoft and the developers decide to design a product that isn't riddled with microtransactions especially with super heroes lol

Nice for those who love it. On my end ive not played a CoD in 20 years. So stay or go it's irrelevant to me and leave the children alone.

Maybe since it's finally over. Sony will start showing more stuff

It was never going to leave..way too much money for microsoft to lose out on. At least now we can stop hearing about it every 5 articles..

I don't get why Jim Ryan get criticism for wanting to block to this deal. Microsoft bought Bethesda 7 Billion now Activision 70 Billion. Ppl criticizing Sony where would you draw the line?

Well looks like it’s finally coming to an end.

Been a crazy ride, I’ll tell ya.

Hope the new Spyro will whenever it comes, but not holding my breath. Since this was the biggest deal, hopefully some people can move on.

@STOBO

I think this the end of their publisher spree.

They’ll keep buying smaller studios. Sony does the same. Neither will stop that. Chances are they will only speed up.

I don’t think Microsoft expected this much pushback from regulators over this purchase. I suspect they’re probably done with buying big publishers for now at least.

Is it finally over? Can Sony announce something now? We still don't know what's after Spider-Man 2.

Phil is the biggest snake in gaming history LMAO.

@Tharsman Through Dec. 31st 2027. Lol.

@LightningLeader yea… more like 70%!

Sony should leverage this for some other IPs

Ie hey Microsoft… “if you keep Elder Scrolls and Fallout as just timed exclusives you can buy Activision”

@elpardo1984 they were appealing the ruling of the preliminary injunction trial which would just issue a temporary block until the actual trial in august. Since they lost that trial and the appeal there is no longer a temporary restraining order to close the deal. The actual FTC trial is scheduled for august but now seems unneccessary without the Sony argument.

Farewell Spyro and Crash. It was nice knowing you.

@OrtadragoonX I doubt it. Now they should aim higher, go for Tencent

Ok, but still not my objection to this merger. I don't play call of duty, but I have got other Activision games I was interested in.

@NomNom

They won’t get the benefit of the doubt they had this time.

And they really sacrificed a ton of to get this deal through. I doubt they want to go through that again so soon.

The fact they had to sign this agreement means Microsoft is definitely going to go exclusive once the ten years are up.

@STOBO Bethesda is where I drew the line. That was a lot of games going over to Microsoft and it's just the equivalent of them doing steroids, over hard work.

Sony could've potentially found some cash to have bought Bethesda, $8bn was doable for them

They cannot compete with $69bn. They take $80bn as a whole each year, Microsoft, $200bn.

Activision is so far over the line. It's insane and should be blocked.

Good. Can we move on from this? Sony's priotrities are terrible when all they wanted was poo of duty because all their other shooters flopped hard. Nintendo can survive without cod. So can sony if they get their ***** together.

@NomNom You ain't getting no higher than ABK, no other publisher is worth more than them. Tencent are totally different as they aren't just a games publisher, they are a massive corporation like Microsoft who deal in a lot more than just games and would cost trillions to buy, I dare say Microsoft couldn't afford them.

@4kgk2 if I was sony I'd be going after Mihoyo, they are bringing in billions monthly from Genshin and Honkai Star Rail, more money than COD brings sony in a year. So they already have a strong partnership, thier total assets are around $7-8 Billion, if the rumours are true about sony raising over $13 billion for acquisitions then they can easily afford to buy them.

@Northern_munkey yeh they have said that since they announced the deal ....but the ppl who know all say he's lying and they are going to take it off ps blah blah

And jym was told that before anyone else was but he played it stupidly and got way less than he wanted , even used the ps fans to fight his corner with his bs , I do hope Sony see the error in this and get rid of him he is bad for Sony they could do much better without him , yes he brings in money now but long-term he's has no vision
What jym wanted
Cod / all acti games / all Bethesda games /no cod on game pass

What he gets cod

Microsoft will violate this contract as soon as it's convenient for them.

@XenonKnight it's legally binding thats the whole point of it , they can't

@Martsmall They have all the money to say f you and run the courts for years over it.

And when activison games come out on Xbox and not playstation and blame every one else apart from jym ,remember what he was offered in march and said no
"Microsoft is proposing a package of licensing remedies which (i) guarantee parity between the PlayStation and Xbox platforms in respect of CoD and (ii) ensure wide availability of CoD and other Activision titles on cloud gaming services," Microsoft said in the document published on Wednesday.

The gamble didn't really pay off for Sony

@XenonKnight why would they do that ,cut off Thier nose to spite their face ? It makes zero in common sense or the business world

Sony is like yeah we fighting for it.sony didn't give up.word up son

At least Sony has 10 years to build a proper FPS IP. Not saying that it will match COD, but they definitely need to have at least one.

Still to soon to know if Concord will be that IP, but the moment Druckmann said that the Half Life series were a huge inspiration within Naughty Dog, I would have give a big investiment into the studio to see them making an FPS in the near future.

@Sakai I dont think you quite get the bigger picture.
This was never about agreeing a 10 year deal or a deal. This was just to stall the sale.

Jim and anyone with knowledge of the industry that call of duty would never not be on playstation it would be call of duty suicide.

This was pure and simple, how far could Sony push it and stall it to get there own plans in order.

Reality is if you was Sony and your main competition was buying the biggest game franchise this decade, what would you do, esp when you have just seen Bethesda gobbled up and games taken away from you, when they promised they wouldn't.

You'd 100% do what ever you can to stall it and maybe stop it but unlikely.

What Sony has done is made sure that Microsoft has to put call of duty on everything, including streaming services.

Sony has won this for the gamers. It was never about Microsoft buying them.

@Martsmall Just to be aholes and block it from Playstation. It could take more then the 10 years to get to the Supreme Court of the United States and by then the contract will have expired.

And pulling Starfield from PS5 is going cost them millions in sales they could have gotten.

@XenonKnight no it makes zero sense , why take a game that has millions of players that buy it on ps and tell em no , if they did that only a small percentage would move to Xbox it's not worth the money they would lose , 10 years is along time by that time cod could b just a distant memory for players on any console

And as for starfield yes they paid for it why not have it as exclusive ? Just like Sony paid for the game rights to spiderman and made it exclusive ,it's gd business on both sides and makes loads of money

But with cod it's entrenched for some ps users ( and that's not a dig ppl play what they enjoy I'm happy for em ) I myself don't like that multiplayer cod I do like the single player part

Theres is too many ps users that love cod it would be a massive loss to Microsoft if they took it away

@Martsmall Microsoft does alot dumb things.

@Martsmall Microsoft could have sold millions of copys of Starfield on PS5. No one is going to sell there PS5 for Starfield.

@TheCollector316 with Sony owning 70% of the high end console market, should they be allowed to buy Bungie and Square? Or should the FTC stop that? Just wondering, cause they are about to acquire someone they said this year. Could be a smaller support studio. We will have to see. But in no way shape or form was there a case for the FTC or CMA to fight. It was apparent in the videos the FTC and CMA scrambled to have anything. I do think deals of this size should be looked at. But this case was a done deal from the beginning. Even Jim said it’s not bad for business. But somehow Sony’s fan’s know more? Seems odd to me. I look forward to enjoying great games across my PS5 and Series X for years to come. 😊

99% chance call of duty will not be exclusive on year 11. MS wants call of duty on playstation and probably always will.

@XenonKnight no one needs to sell their ps5, they can still play starfield on pc/TV/cloud/Xbox consoles /tablet/ phone , even if just say 10% of those who do to play it that way decide to pay for gamepass and stay buying other Xbox games /game pass subs it's still a lot of ppl , I don't see how you think that ppl have to ? It's not like if u own a ps 5 u can't play other consoles , if they want to they can nothing stopping them apart from tribal bs gamer wars

Edit and before I get someone saying I bias u only said the play Xbox blah blah , Xbox users can also buy /play ps games too if they want to ,it works both ways and with Nintendo

@roe Crash, Conker and Banjo are in the same prison as Sly Cooper and Jak & Dexter. None of them are seeing the light of day anytime soon.

@thefourfoldroot1 from what i remember in the court hearing COD has to wait until 2025 to be on GP day 1. I will need to go back and watch that video again. But thats what i remember hearing. Older COD’s are already improving their match making and will be on GP very soon. My guess would be in time for the holidays.

@Martsmall I hate Microsoft and don't want to pull it(Xbox Series X) out of the closet. Yes I could buy it on steam but I'm still giving microsoft money. And why should I choose renewing game pass over getting a PSVR2?

Asus ROG Ally can run it.

@Snick27 rumor is the still want to try and talk with Square but i am sure Sony is going to move in on that. Plus Sega has only said not now. Heard a few on YouTube say Sega is not off the table. Just not in 2023. Otherwise Sony and MS will probably go for smaller size studios. Which can still be very beneficial to both of them.

@XenonKnight that's your choice it's not up to me to tell you what to do with your money lol just like I'm sure a lot of ppl have paid Sony to play Spiderman ,gow ,last of us etc etc
It's the same both ways ,if you want to play it bad enough u will pay whoever to play it

@HonestHick Agree. It was always going to go through and despite any posturing from Sony they have ultimately done what is best for business anyway. Whole load of drama for nothing.

Regardless of what happens next any consolidation worries aside. I doubt either the FTC or CMA will get involved anymore now so any other deals on this scale will probably get far less scrutiny.

@UltimateOtaku91 i hope there is some truth in the rumor of why Phil was wearing a Hexen shirt at the game show. Raven and ID made Hexen. Raven and ID are now owned by MS. Maybe they pull Raven off COD long enough to work with ID tech and make a new Hexen game for Xbox/PC. That would be a fan made game that would really please gamers and show this deal will have some creative spin from time to time.

@Jaxx420 FTC is done and looked bad. Mentioning the market leader over 38 times and consumers 11 times. That won’t win a case. CMA couldn’t even math right and when asked where they got their numbers they stumbled and looked bad. Video games aside these are the people deciding what other business can come and operate in the UK. Best believe the comments of the higher up’s in the UK were disappointed with the CMA. FTC already took their grilling in front of U.S congress. They are soundly built organizations at the moment and big changes will be coming to both. Not cause of the ABK, but because of the ABK deal and all the other fumbling’s.

@Martsmall Do you own a PS5?

You guys are hilarious!

@XenonKnight yes I do and a PS4 /psvr

@RedRiot193 ...."poo of duty".....did your 7 year old best friend give you that one. Jeez

MS: We offer you a 3 years Deal for COD to stay on Playstation
Sony: Give as a 10 year deal for all ABK+Bethesda titles.
MS: What are u smoking Jim? we will offer u a 10 year offer for COD and all ABK titles to stay on PS, take it or leave it...
Sony: F@ck u I Hope the deal gets blocked from regulators, we will pay for lobbying it to.

6 months later...

Sony: Hello Sir....is the 10 year deal for COD and all ABK titles still available?
MS: Nope, we can only give u a 10 year deal only for COD.
Sony: Thank you Sir we will take it no matter what...thank u, (Jim: Yeah I got that s@ckers didn't I? )

@Martsmall Why are you not playing FF16?

@TheCollector316 They absolutely will. I firmly believe they are going to make a play for EA next.

Sony was basically forced to sign this after the judge in California bought the lies MS was selling (also, her son works for MS, but that's not a conflict of interest or anything). I think it's pretty much guaranteed that all ABK games not named Call of Duty will be exclusive to MS starting in 2024. On top of that, I'm sure they are already readying their next massive acquistion. This is a very bad precedent that has been set.

@XenonKnight I don't like FF games

@theSpectre a:did u listen to the trial ? I did and honestly the ftc has no argument ,thier big deal was cod would b kept from Sony and even that was said it wouldn't be by oath

In fact the ftc screwed up and said the deal would be bad for Sony to which the judge said. this is about what's bad for the consumers. which showed who they were protecting

B : the ftc wanted that judge and it was known before the trial started and someone else could have been found but the ftc wanted her

C maybe all acti games apart from cod will be exclusive but jym was offered a lot more back in march like

"Microsoft is proposing a package of licensing remedies which (i) guarantee parity between the PlayStation and Xbox platforms in respect of CoD and (ii) ensure wide availability of CoD and other Activision titles on cloud gaming services," Microsoft said in the document published on Wednesday.

He denied it and when he knows hes lost he goes for anything he can grab so ask jym Ryan about that

@HonestHick I honestly think Microsoft will go the IP route for a while , embracer will sell anything they own to the highest bidder for one , and whenever the spider man game license comes up for renewal ( don't know when ) I don't think they will make the same mistake twice

@XenonKnight Sony also uses Azure Cloud, by using Playstation u r giving Microsoft money, better sell and buy a Switch...

@Martsmall That judge shouldn't have ben the one to hear the case her son works for microsoft and I hope the ftc would file a complaint with the bar.

@MaikonCSGarcia I don't use my Switch much anymore I will never sell my PS5. I'm buy a PS5 slim this year.

@XenonKnight lol the ftc can't complain they knew before the trial began and was asked if they wanted a new judge and they said no ,they just say oh now we have lost we have changed our mind we want a new judge

That's like me suing McDonald's cause the apple pie had apple in it

@XenonKnight yes I agree ,I couldn't work out what their case actually was and why it was brought , it was basically the whole trial to get microsoft to say cod will stay on ps which they said they would anyway and had even offered the legal binding contact before any of it

And let's be honest its not the first government agency for any country that thinks they know best for the ppl and really don't

@Gunnerzaurus they had already been offered 10 years and more beside before

https://www.reuters.com/technology/microsoft-tells-uk-it-will-license-call-duty-sony-10-years-2023-03-08/

@IAmAshCohen17 They will pull it in 10 years when the agreement ends. Microsoft is only doing this for now b/c they have to due to regulators. Don't be fooled

@IAmAshCohen17
Of course she wanted to get rid of ps, because that's what they did with Zenimax too. only they can't ignore Playstation. That is something else entirely. But anyway, let's get on with the next chapter. Sony buys take two. Or a very big collaboration between ps and take two. But Sony will hit back soon. anyway.

@PSfan4Life22 Yes, but where will call of duty be in 10 years?

@Martsmall Microsoft says again, but nothing comes of all promises. so we wait.... Zenimax anyone?

Oh my boy Jim Ryan on his knees with the quickness ! Have to love it

@XenonKnight So u will keep giving Microsoft money through Playstation.

@TommyNL that's why there is legal contracts , any contract saying starfield wont be exclusive ? He did say it would be on a case by case basis , please show me any promise he made ? and if you think that they could mess up a contract and not honor it. Do you think Sony lawyers are that stupid ?

And no one even knows of cod will played by anyone on 11 years ,would anyone guessed that fortnight would b as big as it is now before it came out ,? Things can change a lot in 10 years for a game

@XenonKnight Tbf Sony may have entered a partnership with Microsoft for Azure servers and Ai Technology but nothing has come of that yet and PlayStation is still using AWS. So don't worry your money spent on playstation consoles and subscription services won't go to Microsoft.

@Gunnerzaurus If I was ignoring it I would had not typed it myself. I cant exactly copy and paste text from a screenshot. I also stated they were not initially offering 10 year. They offered 5 years for all existing IP. 2027 would had been 5 years from the time, this all started on Jan 2022 and would had likely ended in 2028 had it actually been signed now.

It’s very likely that would had been a renewable contract, renewals are always possibilities. Personally, as someone that does not care about CoD, I would have preferred 5 years of sequels to games like Crash, Spyro and Tony Hawk than 10 more years of CoD.

@Martsmall Spider-man will probably stick Sony. They have a dev for it and a formula. Even if for my liking it’s getting kind of old and will need a gameplay shakeup soon after part 2. I get flak for this online but Spider-man and marvel games just don’t do anything for me. Sure i respect they are well made games and sell off the characters popularity. But I really like insomniac as a developer and it kind of stinks for me that they are always on a marvel game and not something more original. I think MS still finds a way to get Sega done in the next 2 years or so. Thats the GP titles they need for Japan and other markets. They said those games would largely stay multi platform, but they would control the IP’s and of course how and when they hit GP. I know some anti Xbox fan’s get sick of hearing about GP, but this really is the killer service MS built and needs to do well. For anyone doubting if MS is serious about the games industry, they just spent $70 billion dollars and fought countries around the world to make Xbox bigger. So anything they do next wouldn’t surprise me much. You have a good idea with Embracer. Have to see how it all plays out. 😊

@PSfan4Life22 when Jim Ryan was asked if Sony was buying ABK would they kept COD exclusive and he wouldn’t answer the judge. Pleading the 5th. So if Sony had the money they wouldn’t even big giving 10 year deals. They don’t share their games and thats fine, thats why i buy a PS console, but then at the same time if at some point they lose out on games due to being exclusive elsewhere it seems like fair play. Hence why i buy a Xbox console as well. I don’t want to miss out on great games and both consoles now have some killer titles coming. This is starting to feel like the SNES vs Genesis era, where you will miss out if you don’t own both, but if you only have one you will still have plenty of games to play. 😊

@UltimateOtaku91 The more I think about microsoft 1st party games for the next 2.5 years I only see one game I care about. Fable 4 I don't care about it and pdz why should I care about it. And that one one game is Starfield and I can just get it on steam. I see no point till maybe christmas 2025 of even think of renewing game pass. So I just buy Starfield on steam and keep the Xbox series X in the closet.

So I will be getting PSVR2!

@UltimateOtaku91 have you tried Honkai Star Rail? Is it any good?

@XenonKnight Don't blame you, I sold my Series S a few months ago, I'm not that interested in Halo, Forza Motorsport and Sea of Thieves, Hellblade 2 is likely another year away, State of Decay 3 is multiple years away same with Fable 4, Perfect Dark, Indianna Jones, Elder Scrolls 6 and that clockwork game all years away. Starfield looks great but I'm not buying an xbox console again just for that, especially when Bethesda will milk the crap out of it with multiple versions and DLC over the next few years, may as well wait for the next gen version with graphical improvements, 60fps, less buggy and all DLC included, we all know that's what's going to happen.

And gamepass on mobile just isn't great without spending money on a controller, and even then its 720p only and you get input lag and audio lag over Bluetooth, meaning playing fast paced games isn't a great experience. I have a Logitech G Cloud and it's a great handled but gamepass is still only 720p and that's a killer for me, I'm getting a better experience with GeForce now.

@XenonKnight Yes I've played around 10 hours on mobile and it's good, but I'm not playing anymore until the PS5 version comes out.

Elder Scrolls 6 isn't till maybe 2026 or 2027. By then RoG Ally 2 will be out.

@HonestHick I liked the first Spiderman but not as excited for spider man 2 ,it feels like not a big of change as it could have been if you Get what I mean ? Not slagging off the creators but it feels like dlc ,i could b wrong I'll wait and see once it has released
Spider man would b a big pull for Microsoft ( depending on when sony's contract ends of course ) , and if Disney decide to go the bid route microsoft could afford it and with IPS there isn't going to be all this fuss about monopoly's

@KingPev I gave it the name that fits its age demographic

I wonder what else the deal had in it? I wonder if Sony was smart enough to negotiate price in this deal. if they didn't - I'd charge Sony a 'tax' on year 3. A tax to cover get closer to that 30% they make. By year 10 I'd have an extra 20-30% tacked on above normal prices. Or charge end users an additional "online" fee etc.

Little things to turn the knife and destroy the competition. Between this deal and whatever Nintendo makes next - watching the three of them duke it out will be great fun these next few years.

Am I surprised,no. But like so many things that were unearthed in the trial,its the devil in the detail when it comes to legalese wishy-washy double Dutch from Phil "Gamer" Spencer. Note under oath he refused to give the same commitment to other long established IP's like Diablo,Crash etc.

"But Jim Ryan squandered the chance by fighting the acquisition!". Did he,by wanting to asking for a more encompassing deal to include Zenimax Bethesda games that were in fact planned for PS but immediately cancelled by Phil Spencer?(despite his public PR rhetoric of "game by game" basis & "we're not about pulling games on other platforms").🙄
Much like that Square Enix/Sega etc.,are all on their "shopping list",for buyouts with the stated intent on making them exclusive,its as far removed from "enabling more competition" as you can get!😑

Sadly the inaction against breaking up Microsoft back in the 90's,or indeed the rise of them, Google, Facebook,Amazon,Disney etc.,in the age of megacorps by weakened regulatory authorities unwilling to challenge their armies of lawyers have led to these situations.😑

Bobby Kotick & the rest of his cronies get their golden parachutes more's the pity!
But having gotten away with this,make no mistake they'll stop there,& besides Square/Sega,or behemotths like Take-two,won't be next.🤔😔

Sadly a 2.3+trillion monopoly parent company Microsoft is gonna to continue to pull more third party AAA IP's off future Playstation releases & yet insist permanent exclusivity is somehow less evil than timed exclusives & "pro gamer"!!

@Martsmall the word monopoly is so miss used. I see gamers on here saying if the ABK deal goes through MS will be a monopoly and the second it passed the same people said, who cares MS will still be in 3rd place. Well then which one is it? You can’t be a monopoly in 3rd place, not to mention it just goes to show how disrespected Nintendo is from gamers. Hard to be a video game monopoly when Nintendo is selling 100 million plus switches. It’s why the word is used incorrectly and wasn’t a consideration in court. As for Spider-Man Sony is getting a little Ubisoft feeling. Lots of wash rinse repeat. They need to be careful of that. But i have no doubt Spider-Man 2 will be well made and played by millions, it’s just not for me.

@4kgk2 What Nintendo have to do with this. Nintendo did nothing wrong to Sony.

So is this finally over? All this drama for nothing it seems.

@Tasuki If that was logical stance then the sony would be getting the new Elderscrolls from that publisher and that red game wouldn't have got canceled in ps5 development. This is all to play nice incase they want to buy another and another company. Smoke and mirrors to look humble and having good will and such.

@tthoc1985

Nintendo betrayed Sony in 1991 by partnering with Sony's competitor Phillips. Read more information about it at https://venturebeat.com/games/the-story-behind-nintendos-betrayal-of-sony-and-how-it-created-its-fiercest-rival/

@playstation1995
I wonder what Sony will do in response. I'm 100% sure they won't just let this happen. Sony is not crazy of course. When I don't know but I suspect there will be a big announcement coming from camp Playstation.

@HonestHick It's honestly hilarious.

One week it's "Xbox don't have games and they are constantly in third place and they can't manage their studios"
Other week it's "Xbox is becoming monopoly"

Like...make up your mind? I guess?

@HonestHick They don't share their games? Is that why they spent billions on Bungie and are fine with them releasing Destiny, Marathon, and other future games on whatever platform they want? Time to drop that narrative that Sony for sure wouldn't allow games on other platforms.

@TommyNL Probably the same place it's been for the past 16 years or so. On top of the market and the best selling game every year. Sure maybe something changes but when COD had been the best selling game every year for like 16 years now outside a year where a GTA releases then I have no reason to doubt anything is going to change. It's one of those cases that I'll have to see it to believe it.

@Jamesblob Oh my lord. You are trying to say that email from 2019 with "we have ability to spend Sony out of business" (which Microsoft frankly has) means that it is 100% current strategy?

It's almost like Jimbo said in January 2021 that he is not worried about losing Call of Duty and few months later started his world tour convincing regulators that Microsoft wants to foreclose COD from PlayStation...

...It just means that you are changing business strategy and opinion based on current situation...which is shocking, I know

Also. Does anybody forcing you to sub into Game Pass? Because last time I checked, game on Xbox are available to buy not only on Xbox, but also day one on PC . Which is currently even more generous then Sony blue balling customers into buying PlayStation consoles and then dropping their games on PC 2-3 years later And hell, you don't even need PC or console to access those games.

Also. Current Bethesda strategy is literally case-by-case basis currently. Since merger, Bethesda released 6 games
2 were timed PlayStation exclusive (Deathloop, GhostWire)
2 were exclusives (Hi-Fi Rush, Redfall)
1 was multiplatform (Quake Remastered)
1 was mobile (Mighty Doom)
Currently Bethesda has Indiana Jones and Starfield which will be exclusive and rumored Quake II remastered which is supposed to be multiplatform.

Sounds like case-by-case basis to me.

@Jamesblob "So, let's say these games were $100 million each to produce, yeah that sweet sweet $15 a month will offset that real quick. Oops. No it won't"

Ehh. Did you missed the fact that Game Pass is generating 1 billion in revenue per quarter, ie. 4 billion per year? Outside of first-party games actually selling outside of subscription?

Yeah. Let's ignore fact that Sea of Thieves sold 6 million copies on Stem only (not counting Xbox sales) despite fact that game was day one Game Pass release. That Forza Horizon 5 sold 4 million copies on Steam alone. That Halo MCC sold 6+ million copies on Steam alone. That Starfield is currently most wishlisted game on Steam despite being in Game Pass.

Let's ignore all of that. Because if you put your game into subscription day one, your sales must be 0
/s

According to Sony, current development of AAA takes +- 5 years with 200 million budget. Means that in 5 years that it takes to make AAA game Microsoft will have 20 billion dollars in revenue from Game Pass alone (if you expect Game Pass to not grow, which I really doubt with Starfield and COD games). Not counting sales outside of Game Pass, live service revenue from Overwatch/Diablo/Call of Duty etc. Does it sounds to you like those 20 billion can't sustain development of games across XGS/Bethesda/ABK?

@Tasuki its amazing how many people dont understand this. All they see is how many plastic boxes sold

@Tecinthebrain still no guarantee it will come to gamepass day one its a lot of sales to throw away

@Jamesblob Ehhh. because that's what corpos do I guess?
Why Sony shut down Japan Studio and PixelOpus. Didn't they made 2 billion in profit last financial year?
Why did EA layoff employees recently despite being in profit? Why did Take-Two despite raking billions from GTA?

Outside of fact that overwhelming majority of layoffs in Microsoft wasn't in gaming division, main "layoff" inside Xbox was 343. And rightfully so, since they ***** up live service support of Halo Infinite royally and they restructured whole studio as a consequence.

Corpos are laying off staff in redundant positions and sectors but they are still hiring in other sectors. For example...343 laid off +-100 employees, but ZeniMax Online, The Coalition and BGS were still on hiring sprees. So it wasn't like "we are *****, we need to layoff people" it was more like "there is no reason to keep as many 343 employees since we are restructuring studio."

Number of Xbox Game Studios and Bethesda employees are at constant growth. That's probably all you need to know...

@RBMango probably they as before nothing

@rjejr will find out later today

@Somebody knowing the FTC they will still probably take them to court

@Trollmaster would be crazy to throw all that money away plus all the hate they would get from the fans

@Beerheadgamer82 wow you missed on some great games starcraft/warcraft 3 are classics!

@UltimateOtaku91 makes total sense to me but it seems sony are going more towards the games for service route where as MS wanna get more into the mobile market

@Dodoo wasnt on Nintendo, gforce now, or Boosteroid

@Arxagelos you forgot Jim wanted ABK and Besthesda games on ps+ too!

@PSfan4Life22 they are doing becuase it makes them a ton of money being sold on ps

So they've accepted the deal that was offered to them in the first place ,what a waste of money and resources this was.

This time next year activision blizzard will be shelved right next to rare, etc...

Gives them 10 years and 2 console generations to get word out that Call of Duty is going to be only on Xbox. To just pull it right away would create a void another company or game could fill. Casuals won’t buy another console this early into a generation. So this makes sense from an xbox perspective. Get people used to seeing the xbox logo on boot up. Get them used to the idea that it’ll only be on xbox. Then pull the plug if enough swap to whatever next gen xbox they’re cooking.

Really couldn't care less about CoD but Spyro and Crash, they're like PlayStation mascots!?! Well, they were back in the day when Sony cared about their own IPs...

Good it's sorted, can we now move forward as a gaming community and move past who's buying who and who's got a stupid amount of cash flow to throw around and let's get back to being excited or disappointed with new games coming out. I've accepted I'm probably going to have to buy a Xbox again to play certain titles but that's fine kinda gives me a excuse to try and twist the wife's arm metaphorically and I think that fine for once instead of me getting a metaphorical arm twist as usual.

@Gabriel1 Yeah I know about it already I'm not stupid.

@PSfan4Life22 this is a new thing, and something Bungie really wanted in the deal and Sony needed Bungie to help bring in talent for live service. Again Jim Ryan was asked if Sony was buying ABK would they make COD exclusive and he refused to answer the question twice. I ain’t complaining about it. It’s just not something they do normally. They keep as much exclusive to the brand as they can. That said i buy their console for those games. It’s not an insult, it was pretty well documented in the ABK trail. 😊

@Godot25 it’s a narrative and use of a word i just can’t find any logic to get behind. You can’t be in 3rd and be a monopoly. The constant switching of what they are or will become is just not sound logic. They will be more competitive going forward and at this point in time that’s all we know.

@Jamesblob And who said Microsoft needed to buy ABK?
They saw an opportunity, price was relatively low, ABK covers fields where Microsoft wants to expand (mobile gaming and PC Game Pass growth) and they took it.

So I don't know what are you crying about.
Do you know that even after ABK Microsoft will have less then 8% of gaming marketshare in terms of revenue? Does this sound like monopoly to you?

@Toot1st ain't those games more PC than console. Only game on consoles PS, Nintendo and Sega for over 30 years but mostly just PS these days. Not saying Starcraft and Warcraft are crap, I don't think I've ever heard of them being on consoles before

@bpomber how is Phil hypocrite?

ABK games will literally be on more devices now because of GamePass. Smart TV, Smart Phones, Steam, Steam Deck, PC, NVidia, and other stream services.

Nintendo and PlayStation are still getting COD

When Spider-Man 2 release, what all platforms is that on?

You might not like it, but that’s Sony’s ecosystem problem.

@Jamesblob yeah i aint reading all that

@Jamesblob see the problem with your statement is that Microsoft OS system versus video games is two different categories when you combined them and try to build a monopoly out of them. It doesn’t work according to the law.

They’re two different categories

They’re not a monopoly. But if you look at the law in their definition of monopoly, Sony is actually been displaying monopoly tendencies.

Sony created this. They just messed with the wrong people. In order for Microsoft to stay relevant in the video game field, they resorted to buying studios. Microsoft has been keeping a lot of their games multiplatform, some of them still on PlayStation.

@Jamesblob yeah publishers. And if you look up the research and the regulators findings that came out and you’ll see they still won’t be number one or number two in the gaming industry.

@Toot1st Thanks, I'll keep an eye out. Looks like something happened but Bloomberg is paywalling me. 🤑

Did you just go through and reply to every comment on here? 😂

@NoToSheep Sony owns stock in FromSoft, but they also already have a parent company they aren't exactly independent.

Some of the revisionist crap concerning Sony's history in the console market being posted recently is stomach churning.

Sony are far from a paragon of virtue. When they started out in the console market, they used their deep pockets to undercut the competitions hardware prices and paid for exclusives to keep games from competitors platforms and also because they had no actual IP and first party games (like Sega and Nintendo).

They also started buying up studios.

Now a bigger fish with deeper pockets has arrived in the form of MS and are employing the same tactics Sony did to compete with Sega and Nintendo, and people are crying foul.

Sony are getting a taste of their own medicine and are going to have to find ways to survive and keep competing like Nintendo did and Sega didn't.

I believe they will.

If you are wondering why in 10 or 15 years from now or much less why GAME, HMV, CeX and many other similar stores have been replaced by a boring Primark, the 9th greetings card shop in your local town, more obese fast food junk or yet another coffee shop then look no further than at yourself. There will literally be zero reason to want to go to any local town soon. Once all those entertainment stores leave all the big shopping centres, it'll become a borefest. So many boring greeting card stores selling tons of useless paper and cardboard, bargain 1 pound shops selling so many useless plastic items, clothes and footwear stores and the same old overpriced boring coffee shops💤

Edit apologies I've commented in the wrong article haha wtf took me a good 5 mins this

Glad this is more or less over, and really looking forward to not playing any Activision games on PlayStation!

@winnerzero just been extended so got another two months of this lol thanks CMA

@rjejr Was a slow day at work yesterday lol

As expected no Call Of Duty on PS6 but until then I'm sure that Sony would have released it's own IP and will not be needing CoD anymore

@Toot1st 😂

Xbox monopoly, gamers let Phil win.

@GeeForce That doesn't make Microsoft's attempts to hold a monopoly right though. If anything, gamers should have been much more engaged and stopped this buyout from happening. It's bad enough they did it to protect sexual predators from ActiBlizz, and you defended it, but this just makes the gaming industry for consumers that much worse. Step off your high horse, you did nothing here to help except whine.