• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

VERGE:Phil Spencer told Sony back in January that Microsoft would keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for “several years” after current deal

Status
Not open for further replies.

Mr.ODST

Member
Now we know why Playstation put a complain in to regulators about the deal.

MS going in on this deal lol
 
It’s funny that Phil can only commit to a few more years

Wasn’t he running his mouth about exclusives not being a thing anymore and how he doesn’t want to close off gamers or some shit?

If he believed his own bullshit he’d come out and say CoD is on PS forever like Sony did with Bungie
Exactly. He’s a straight up liar. He plays the good guy to the media for soundbytes but his approach is very very insidious.
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
Sony buying exclusives and MS bought the farm. If it goes through MS are just going to turn dirty. If this doesn't work for jimbo the bimbo he's just told the world there will be no cod on ps5 in the next 3 years.
 

MikeM

Member
Doesn't Sony withhold their own games from Xbox platform? Spiderman, Returnal, Bloodborne etc? What is the actual problem here? Microsoft is playing Sony's game and they won a big round.
No different than Gears, Halo, Forza, etc
 

Kagey K

Banned
I don't doubt that if Sony had acquired Activision that Sony would make Call of Duty exclusive immediately.
Without a doubt, and that would be fine it's thier property, they could do what they want.

If I wanted to play CoD I could go buy a PlayStation. If I didn't care about CoD it would make no difference to me. Same with every other exclusive out there.

For some reason people seem to have a problem with it going the other way.
 

lucius

Member
Sony should just put Gamepass on PlayStation both companies would benefit and I rather these companies stay making games and consoles long term then some alternatives. Mircosoft or someone else will buy up these companies and franchises anyway eventually.
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
Sony should just put Gamepass on PlayStation both companies would benefit and I rather these companies stay making games and consoles long term then some alternatives. Mircosoft or someone else will buy up these companies and franchises anyway eventually.
There is no evidence of this. Gamepass is a huge money sink right now.
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
Yeah, we know exactly what Sony would do if they were buying Activision or Bethesda etc. They wouldn't even get 3 years on xbox.

When disney bought all the rights to marvel that shit was yanked quick sticks off netflix etc and put in didney plus.

This is just the way it is I guess. Sure it sucks for this gen but anyone buying a playstation next gen will know there's no COD.

If it goes through that is.
 
Doesn't Sony withhold their own games from Xbox platform? Spiderman, Returnal, Bloodborne etc? What is the actual problem here? Microsoft is playing Sony's game and they won a big round.
The difference is NONE of those games were multiplatform and then taken away. Spiderman (the one Sony makes) isn't a continuation of the Activision series it's new, Bloodborne, Returnal etc were all PlayStation exclusive from the start. Trying to pretend this is the same thing is silly. I don't even care personally about COD going off of PlayStation I'm just sick of Spencer's dishonesty and people pretending he's some great guy.
 

Yoboman

Member
Sony should just put Gamepass on PlayStation both companies would benefit and I rather these companies stay making games and consoles long term then some alternatives. Mircosoft or someone else will buy up these companies and franchises anyway eventually.
How would Sony benefit from that?

Anyway never going to happen. MS will be far more open to an anti trust lawsuit if they attempt to trojan horse gamepass than if they just make the games exclusive
 
Yeah, we know exactly what Sony would do if they were buying Activision or Bethesda etc. They wouldn't even get 3 years on xbox.

When disney bought all the rights to marvel that shit was yanked quick sticks off netflix etc and put in didney plus.

This is just the way it is I guess. Sure it sucks for this gen but anyone buying a playstation next gen will know there's no COD.

If it goes through that is.
They did not just yank anything they had to let the existing deals run their course and then they brought them back, that's why there are still movies not on Disney+ that should be. The situation between Sony/Activision is much the same. Phil keeps saying "we are honoring the existing agreement" as if they had a choice, trying to sound like the good guy. Legally when you buy a company you have to honor their existing contracts, the only way out of it would be to dissolve Activision as a company and just fold it into Microsoft and they aren't doing that. As far as the 3 bonus years that's a lot different than the "we don't intend to pull COD off of PlayStation" talk that's come from Spencer and other MS execs.
 
And so the pendulum keeps swinging back and forth!

Microsoft also stated this:
"The reality is somewhere in the middle. Microsoft has also argued in these documents to CADE that not distributing games like Call of Duty at rival console stores “would simply not be profitable” for the company."

And then this:
"Microsoft says a strategy of not distributing Activision Blizzard games on rival consoles would only be profitable if the games could attract a high number of players over to the Xbox ecosystem, resulting in revenue to compensate for losses from not selling these titles on rival consoles."

It shouldn't be this hard to give a clear statement. However, given this was said in January, I wonder if their recent statements are a better indicator of a change in their plans or is there something else in play.
The problem is that both statements are true.

CoD is a money-making machine, MS are just deciding where to plug it in. It's all business strategy from here. MS will profit regardless of if they choose exclusivity or not.

It seems to me that Phil is concernred that they STILL have not got thier 1st party pipeline in order. Something fans were hoping would be sported years ago but in truth, seems like we are still a goodf 2-3 years away from stable 1st party AAA releases from Xbox and even then how successful they will be is hard to gauge.

CoD is an easy win if you're wanna compete with IP. Ppl on forums forget that most causal gamers play Cod and Fifa and thats it, literally. They buy a machine that will play Cod and Fifa until the next machine comes out. Xbox wants to be that machine. Plus it kinda seems like Halo is dead, this would be a perfect replacement.
 

pasterpl

Member
Based on some unofficial award for one year over the past two decades? I find it comical how often that is brought up around here

I enjoyed their lineup last year just fine, one of the few good ones they’ve had in a while, but it’s not exactly amazing either.

Your comment also doesn’t even address the fear I have which is focus on quantity over quality as it relates to sub services
Most recent award, from org looking at review averages. Sort of make more sense than many goty awards.
 
I don't doubt that if Sony had acquired Activision that Sony would make Call of Duty exclusive immediately.

To be fair, I don't think MS owes it to Sony to keep CoD on Sony's system.
No they wouldn't because it would be a STUPID business move. This isn't the PS2 era, costs are much higher and companies need to make money, they are spending far less on Bungie and still not making any of their games exclusive, they aren't doing that to in hopes that Spencer will keep COD on PlayStation they are doing it because it makes sense. Buying an $80 billion dollar company than purposely cutting out over half of their current customer base in the hopes of luring a few of them over to your console/PC sub service isn't worth it. The smart move is to keep it multiplatform and let Sony customers subsidize game pass.
 

Kagey K

Banned
No they wouldn't because it would be a STUPID business move. This isn't the PS2 era, costs are much higher and companies need to make money, they are spending far less on Bungie and still not making any of their games exclusive, they aren't doing that to in hopes that Spencer will keep COD on PlayStation they are doing it because it makes sense. Buying an $80 billion dollar company than purposely cutting out over half of their current customer base in the hopes of luring a few of them over to your console/PC sub service isn't worth it. The smart move is to keep it multiplatform and let Sony customers subsidize game pass.
They are doing that because Bungie refused to be bought unless it was under thier own terms.

Don't get confused.

Ms said it wasn't worth it, Sony caved
 
Last edited:

levyjl1988

Banned
Microsoft: In order to put Call of Duty o n PS, Sony has to allow Microsoft to put Game Pass on Playstation, if they decline then no Call of Duty. Too bad, so sad.
 

Gambit2483

Member
Microsoft: In order to put Call of Duty o n PS, Sony has to allow Microsoft to put Game Pass on Playstation, if they decline then no Call of Duty. Too bad, so sad.
5+ years from now I could honestly see MS forcing a Gamepass launcher on other platforms that want to have COD on it (PC and PS).
 
Last edited:

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
5+ years from now I could honestly see MS forcing a Gamepass launcher on other platforms that want to have COD on it (PC and PS).

Well they did say you'll see future Bethesda games on places with game pass, so that's one way to bring those games to PS platforms.
 

coastel

Member
I'd be really suprised if MS ever went xbox/pc only for COD when they can make alot of bank on playstation and it wouldnt really affect their console sales.

I honestly see a Minecraft situation where they keep it multiplat especially as COD would surely make alot for MS, certainly alot more than Minecraft as a multi plat title.

All they have to do is put early access for the future CODs on xbox only and some other pre release shit to draw the most hard-core COD players to xbox only.

Honestly the worst thing they could do Is take it off the biggest COD platform. Better to stay multi and also add a Nintendo only title.

I couldnt give a fuck eiva way I have a PC and playstion 5 so win win.
 
Last edited:
Might want to read a dictionary someday
sev·er·al
/ˈsev(ə)rəl/

determiner · pronoun
determiner: several; pronoun: several
  1. more than two but not many.
Well aren’t you a pleasant person? I’ll accept that definition but in common English, what I said holds true.

Either way, Jim Ryan received the offer and said it’s three, and that isn’t good enough at all. The fact that Microsoft are even considering pulling COD off of PlayStation speaks volumes about how much they truly care.
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
A couple is two
A few is three/four
Several is more than that.
Loop Trump GIF

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/several
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
If you read my reply, I accepted the definition. Hardly butthurt. If everyone acted in such a way then we would have fewer people like you on the internet.
Dude. Move on. You cried because you didn't like being told u were wrong for a 2nd time. So u just came up with the lame "to late" reply, like it matters. It doesn't matter if someone else already gave a definition anyway.

You didnt accept PuffyCan PuffyCan definition anyway 😆

but in common English, what I said holds true.
 
Last edited:

CamHostage

Member
It’s funny that Phil can only commit to a few more years...

If he believed his own bullshit he’d come out and say CoD is on PS forever like Sony did with Bungie

You can't say "forever" in a tech business. Way too many variables, way too much flow and change of the market, way too complicated to forecast, and of course way too much money at play, to ever be so sure of the future.

From Microsoft's viewpoint, Activision is a publisher and they're in the business of making products which sell the most money by exploiting the complete market of platforms (except for Switch, oddly...) That's why they are buying them. But MS is also in a cutthroat get-big-fast mode (as if MS can get bigger) in this wild new digital content market. They're looking at Sony with one eye, but they're really worried about Netflix and Disney plus Youtube and Roblox and other services eating into consumer activity. They're all fighting for people's time, whether it's games or movies/shows or webshows/podcasts or whatever it is that people will drop some money on to waste the day away on.

Right now, CoD is a big player in taking up a lot of dudes' time, in games and on streams about those games, and so the best course of action right now is to stay the course. Several more years. Maybe so many 'several more years'es that it adds up to 'forever', even. However, down the road, though, who knows what the entertainment landscape will look like, and what kinds of pivots will need to be made in order to thrive in it.
 
Last edited:

Lognor

Banned
I'd be really suprised if MS ever went xbox/pc only for COD when they can make alot of bank on playstation and it wouldnt really affect their console sales.

I honestly see a Minecraft situation where they keep it multiplat especially as COD would surely make alot for MS, certainly alot more than Minecraft as a multi plat title.

All they have to do is put early access for the future CODs on xbox only and some other pre release shit to draw the most hard-core COD players to xbox only.

Honestly the worst thing they could do Is take it off the biggest COD platform. Better to stay multi and also add a Nintendo only title.

I couldnt give a fuck eiva way I have a PC and playstion 5 so win win.
That's a good point. Xbox 360 used to be the place to play COD, but then Sony started throwing all this money at Activision and with that came exclusive betas, exclusive maps, etc and that audience that was on the 360 migrated to PS4. So if MS does that same shit they will easily win back that audience. And then they can keep raking in the cash from PS5 game sales.

COD being on Game Pass with exclusive content will bring over millions of people to Xbox from PS. It is probably already having an affect on those looking at a new console. Some might go with Xbox because COD may go exclusive at some time.
 

coastel

Member
That's a good point. Xbox 360 used to be the place to play COD, but then Sony started throwing all this money at Activision and with that came exclusive betas, exclusive maps, etc and that audience that was on the 360 migrated to PS4. So if MS does that same shit they will easily win back that audience. And then they can keep raking in the cash from PS5 game sales.

COD being on Game Pass with exclusive content will bring over millions of people to Xbox from PS. It is probably already having an affect on those looking at a new console. Some might go with Xbox because COD may go exclusive at some time.
Yea exactly. Xbox will be the main place to play COD again, I doubt it will be enough to take over the playsation, but it will definitely take a few million away from playsation you would imagine.
 

Lognor

Banned
Bruh! Sony had the SAME DEAL that MS had in the 360 gen. That's why it was the "place to be."
I had a PS3 that gen, but I don't recall maps and modes being held back on the PS3. Could have been and I wouldn't have noticed since I had all that stuff day one.
Yea exactly. Xbox will be the main place to play COD again, I doubt it will be enough to take over the playsation, but it will definitely take a few million away from playsation you would imagine.
Nah. Once the Xbox gets exclusive betas, first release of content, etc. it will be the place to play COD. The base will move to Xbox, same as what happened in the 360 days. PS will still play a big part, but majority will be on Xbox.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom