Phil Spencer: Call of Duty will be on PlayStation platform for at least a few years

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Not long after announcing the purchase of Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion in January, Xbox boss Phil Spencer wrote to PlayStation boss Jim Ryan. He wanted to assure him that, contrary to "typical contracts in the gaming industry", Call Of Duty will be released on PlayStation for at least a few years.

When the day before yesterday in the first round the first major regulatory body, the one in the United Kingdom, refused to allow the merger of Microsoft and Activision/Blizzard, Microsoft bosses quickly started with PR.

First, Phil Spencer spoke on the official blog, and then he spoke with the editors of The Verge. "In January," Spencer told the publication in a statement, "we provided a signed agreement to Sony to guarantee Call of Duty on PlayStation, with feature and content parity, for at least several more years beyond the current Sony contract, an offer that goes well beyond typical gaming industry agreements" Spencer revealed.

Regulators do not trust Microsoft

And while Spencer has publicly claimed on several occasions that Call of Duty will remain on PlayStation, in fact, this is not entirely true, because he communicated with the head of PlayStation privately only "for a few years".

After such communication, today it is Sony who is the biggest opponent of the unprecedented merger in the gaming industry. Thus, the regulatory body in the UK justifies the negative decision with the fear that the absence of Call of Duty from PlayStation will affect its significant weakening.

On the other hand, the messages from Microsoft's leadership suggest that they don't want to give up on two things. From the instant inclusion of Call of Duty on Game Pass, and then after a few years of the complete removal of Call of Duty from the PlayStation.

As he has already done with Bethesda titles. If he agreed to those two concessions, Microsoft would likely be allowed to merge.