Phil Spencer, Head of Xbox, wants PlayStation to keep getting Call of Duty games. Rather than hide it away on the Xbox platform, he reiterates that he would want the Call of Duty franchise to continue on PlayStation and would eventually like to see it on the Nintendo Switch in the future.
Ever since the Microsoft and Activision Blizzard acquisition became public earlier this year, the main topic has been what it means for the Call of Duty franchise. The fallout has included Sony's lawyers making many cases against the merger in different countries around the world. Despite Sony's fears, Microsoft has said that the future of the franchise is multi-platform and if Phil Spencer gets it his way, could see an expansion.
Speaking at the Wall Street Journal's Tech Live conference, Phil Spencer said, "Call of Duty specifically will be on PlayStation. I'd love to see it on the Switch, I'd love to see the game playable on many different screens. Our intent is to treat Call of Duty like Minecraft." This statement should ease the fears of many; if Spencer gets his way, rather than making the game exclusive he'll be expanding access to Call of Duty to a platform that hasn't seen a mainline title in almost a decade.
Spencer's hope to bring Call of Duty back to the Nintendo platform is a promising sign. A Nintendo console has hosted the franchise since Call of Duty: Ghosts on the Wii U in 2013. Call of Duty games on the platform were offered inconsistently and were derided due to poor performance versus its competition. One way the franchise could return to the platform is through Microsoft's Cloud Gaming endeavors. With Nintendo beginning to offer games like Nier: Automata, a slew of Kingdom Hearts games, and a collection of Resident Evil games via Cloud Gaming, a future partnership for the Call of Duty games between the companies through Cloud Gaming may be possible.
Phil Spencer's mindset of "treating Call of Duty like Minecraft" should go a long way toward easing fears that Microsoft would nefariously take Call of Duty games away from PlayStation players in the future. The threat of Call of Duty games going on Xbox Game Pass has spooked Sony into continuing fights to assure Call of Duty won't be on the service. Minecraft is available on nearly every possible gaming platform long after Microsoft purchased Mojang, the studio that created the game, in 2011. Though the word of a single man within a large corporation may not stand the test of time, the Minecraft reference shows that it doesn't have a history of sudden switch-ups.