MICROSOFT is set to purchase Call of Duty publisher Activision, and PlayStation gamers are worried that the series could go platform exclusive.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer announced the impending $68.7bn deal this week, which will see franchises like all of Duty, Overwatch, and Crash Bandicoot come under Microsoft‘s ownership.
Considering that future Bethesda titles will be Xbox exclusives in the wake of the ZeniMax Media purchase, PS5 players have reason to be concerned.
The upcoming Starfield has already been confirmed as exclusive to Xbox, and it’s likely that future instalments of the Elder Scrolls series will be too.
But Sony won’t take it lying down, says industry analyst Michael Pachter.
“While I think Microsoft has 100% desire to make all Activision games Xbox exclusive, I think that Sony will appeal to both the Federal Trade Commission and the EU Competition Commission,” he told HOAR.
“[I] expect that the deal will be approved only if Microsoft agrees to publish titles that have historically been offered on both Xbox and PlayStation on both consoles for some period of time in the future.”
Pachter says that if this is the case, brand new games like Starfield will get away with launching on Xbox only.
But series like Overwatch, Elder Scrolls, and Call of Duty that have historically been multiplatform games will have to remain so.
“I’d place a 90% likelihood on that being a condition of approval,” he adds.
Since the deal was announced, Sony’s stock price has plummeted by $20bn (13%).
The company will have to fight back against Microsoft if it doesn’t want to lose access to some of the biggest third-party games that both companies have depended on for years.
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