It is important to keep in mind what is going on within Activision Blizzard at this time regarding ongoing allegations about the work culture. The ongoing lawsuit from the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) against the company is over reported toxic workplace culture. The bulk of the suit focuses on “violations of the state’s civil rights and equal pay laws,” specifically regarding the treatment of women and other marginalized groups. To learn more about the proceedings thus far, including details listed in the lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, please check out our previous coverage here.
With Microsoft’s impending purchase of Activision Blizzard announced last week, little has been said about which currently planned multiplatform games like Diablo or the immensely popular Call of Duty will see the light of day on non-Xbox consoles in the future. Now might be the time to breathe a sigh of relief for fans of the prolific shooter franchise who own PlayStation hardware. According to a report from Bloomberg‘s Jason Schreier, PlayStation will still be a place to play at least three more Call of Duty titles.
Schreier spoke with a handful of unnamed sources familiar with the deals between Activision and Sony prior to the announcement of the historic purchase. The three titles are said to be this year’s Infinity Ward developed Modern Warfare follow-up, along with a Treyarch-helmed game, which we assume is scheduled for next year. Taking the third spot is an update to the successful Battle Royale mode Warzone, which stands as a separate entity in the Call of Duty franchise following its release in 2020.
This aligns with Microsoft’s actions following its Bethesda purchase, seeing through existing deals to release games on rival platforms as originally intended. Deathloop and GhostWire: Tokyo, for instance, are seeing those contracts play out as planned. That seems to be the case with Call of Duty, though plans for Blizzard titles like Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV, which were assumed to have multiplatform support, are still very unknown. Last week, we reported on a tweet from Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, where he spoke on this very topic, saying, “Had good calls this week with leaders at Sony. I confirmed our intent to honor all existing agreements upon acquisition of Activision Blizzard and our desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation. Sony is an important part of our industry, and we value our relationship.”
Microsoft’s intention, as Spencer says, is to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation, at the ones Activision already promised. Anything after that, it seems, is still up in the air. However, the confirmed Xbox exclusivity of Bethesda games like Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI is likely an accurate barometer of things to come for beloved Activision Blizzard franchises once these outstanding deals are fulfilled.
[Source: Bloomberg}