Xbox signs ‘binding agreement’ with PlayStation to keep Call of Duty on Sony console for 10 years

Microsoft and PlayStation have come to an agreement to keep Call of Duty on the Sony owned console for the next 10 years. Xbox boss Phil Spencer took to social media over the weekend to share that the two companies had “signed a binding agreement” after Xbox acquired Activision Blizzard.

Spencer announced the news and said he was looking forward to the future for players having “more choice to play their favorite games.” The news came after Microsoft won a fight against the Federal Trade Commission to acquire Activision Blizzard.

Taking to social media on Sunday, Spencer said: “We are pleased to announce that Microsoft and @PlayStation have signed a binding agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. We look forward to a future where players globally have more choice to play their favorite games.”

No further details were shared about the “binding agreement”, but it is known that Call of Duty will remain on PlayStation for at least the next 10 years. It follows Microsoft’s FTC trial where the Xbox head said that he will “do whatever it takes” to keep Call of Duty on the PlayStation consoles.

Spencer said: “I’m making a commitment standing here that we will not pull Call of Duty - it is my testimony - from PlayStation. As you said, Sony obviously has to allow us to ship the game on their platform. But absent any of that, my commitment is, and my testimony is that we will continue to ship future versions of Call of Duty on Sony’s PlayStation 5.”

In December last year, it was reported that Microsoft had offered Sony a deal to keep Call of Duty on the PlayStation for 10 years and that Sony had the rights to put the games on PlayStation Plus if they wanted to.

This has been one way that Microsoft have worked to close the $68.7 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard in the hopes to appease groups such as the FTC and Competitions and Markets Authority, who have both tried to oppose the merger.

The deal has a deadline of July 18 and if a final deal is not agreed then Xbox will need to pay $3 billion to Activision Blizzard and the two companies will have to renegotiate the terms of their merger.