Phil Spencer debunks all conspiracy theories about keeping Call of Duty off PlayStation

Everyone is trying to poke holes in Microsoft’s commitment to keep Obligations on PlayStation once it takes control of Activision Blizzard, and Phil Spencer is a little tired of that.

Microsoft’s head of games has clarified, once and for all, what the company intends to do with Call of Duty on PlayStation, leaving no room for alternative interpretations.

Speaking on The Verge’s Decoder podcast, Spencer was asked directly about some of the ways Microsoft might decide to get out of this deal in the future. The concern comes mainly from the way Spencer’s statement above was worded.

Although Microsoft has long promised to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for years to come, Sony said the offer was “inadequate on many levels.” Spencer’s response was to say that as long as there is a PlayStation to ship to, Call of Duty will be available.

That, of course, could be a sneaky way for Microsoft to force Game Pass onto PlayStation, should it decide that’s the only way the game will ship years from now, putting Sony in an impossible situation. .

“Native Call of Duty on PlayStation, not tied to them having to carry Game Pass, not streaming,” said spencer. “If they want a streaming version of Call of Duty, we could do that too, just like we do on our own consoles.”

“There’s nothing behind my back. It’s Call of Duty – Modern Warfare 2 running great on PlayStation, running great on Xbox. The next game, the next, the next, the next, the next, the next.” [game]. Native to the platform, without having to subscribe to Game Pass. Sony doesn’t have to have Game Pass on its platform for that to happen.

“There’s nothing hidden. We want to continue to release Call of Duty on PlayStation, without any kind of weird ‘uh huh, figured out the problem.'”

As clear as this statement is, Spencer also added that no contract can be written to say ‘forever’, but he is open to making a longer-term commitment that Sony/regulators are comfortable with.

Short of convincing regulators to avoid the deal entirely, this is probably the best outcome Sony could hope for. By criticizing Microsoft’s apparent soft language, the platform holder can now get a much more concrete and public promise.

That being said, Microsoft clearly intends to bring Call of Duty to Game Pass, something Sony certainly doesn’t want to happen, and is likely the root cause of this argument.