Microsoft and Sony have signed a binding agreement to retain Call of Duty games on PlayStation for 10 years. This comes days after a US court permits Microsoft to acquire Activision. The court denied America’s Federal Trade Commission’s plea to block the Microsoft-Activision deal. Here’s how all these impact you, the gamer.
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Activision, Blizzard, and King games will make their way to the Xbox Game Pass library.
In its official blog post announcing the acquisition deal, Microsoft said this would include Call of Duty, Diablo and Overwatch. Some leaked documents from the UK’s CMA trial reveal a new CoD title could make its way to Game Pass in 2025.
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The company assures the CoD would be available on PlayStation the same day that it launches on Xbox.
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Microsoft assures it will be investing in the development teams that come into the fold with this acquisition. Microsoft has the money to improve the resources and thereby the games. This could be in the form of game graphics, features, and gameplay.
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With Microsoft becoming a bigger competitor, Sony and Nintendo will be compelled to innovate more and this could introduce new types of games and newer ways of interacting and playing them.
But it goes without saying that this acquisition could lead to a future wherein very few big publishers exist in the market and they could control the dynamics of the market (an oligopoly), creating barriers to entry for new players, increasing game prices, and making lucrative titles exclusive.
Only time will tell if it in fact ends up like that.