Microsoft says it has provided Sony a 10-year deal on new Call of Duty video games

Microsoft has provided Sony a 10-year contract to make future Call of Duty video games obtainable on PlayStation if its proposed Activision Blizzard acquisition goes forward. Microsoft president Brad Smith confirmed the deal in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal right now, noting that “Sony has emerged as the loudest objector” to Microsoft’s proposed $68.7 billion acquisition and that “it’s as excited about this deal as Blockbuster was about the rise of Netflix.”

“We’ve offered Sony a 10-year contract to make each new ‘Call of Duty’ release available on PlayStation the same day it comes to Xbox,” says Smith. “We’re open to providing the same commitment to other platforms and making it legally enforceable by regulators in the US, UK, and European Union.”

Such a concession has been hinted at in current weeks, with The New York Times reporting Microsoft made the provide to Sony on November eleventh. Microsoft Gaming CEO additionally hinted in a current Verge interview that he can be joyful to “make a longer-term commitment that Sony would be comfortable with.”

The Verge revealed in September that Spencer made a written dedication to PlayStation head Jim Ryan earlier this 12 months to maintain Call of Duty on PlayStation for “several more years” past the prevailing advertising deal Sony has with Activision. That letter was despatched across the time Spencer publicly dedicated to Microsoft’s “intent to honor all existing agreements upon acquisition of Activision Blizzard and our desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation.”