We do not know if the purchase of Activision Blizzard will end up taking place, but if it does, it will be one of the most important movements in the entire history of the industry. Microsoft It is putting all the meat on the grill ensuring by active and passive that we will not see exclusives of franchises like Call of Duty.
However, from Xbox they have shown critics of exclusive content for third-party titles. For example, PlayStation players have received an exclusive quest at Hogwarts Legacy, which has been highly praised by those who have been able to try it out. In this sense, Phil Spencer, head of the brand, has spoken in an interview and has made his opinion clear:
“I looked the other day. We have 58 games available on the PlayStation Store as of today. We’ve acquired a lot of them, like the DOOM and Fallout games, but even things that we’re updating like ESO (Elder Scrolls Online), Fallout 76. So we hope to reach a certain level of quality in all of those games, the level of quality that PlayStation gamers expect. That’s our goal. And the same on PC and the same on Nintendo. And when we say available everywhere or not exclusive, we want to make the absolute best version of Call of Duty for any player on any of those platforms.
There is a great game that has come out in the last few weeks, Hogwarts Legacy. And yes, there is a mission available for PlayStation. It is not available for Xbox. I know this is part of the industry, but we’re not going to play that game. It is not a skin or a weapon. It is not a type of game mode. The same version of the game will be available on all platforms, which is really what we do today. Like if you’re a Minecraft player on PlayStation, I don’t think you have to feel like you have the inferior version of Minecraft Dungeons or Legends when it comes out.”
The truth is that Microsoft has recently made two key moves to try to convince regulatory bodies more reticent, such as the European Union and the United Kingdom. Two signatures with Nvidia and Nintendo to bring Xbox games over the next 10 years to their platforms have already been signed and Spencer has addressed the subject:
We want to increase the places where people can play Call of Duty. I think it’s a bit like Minecraft. I think when we acquired Minecraft, our monthly active player base was 20-30 million. I’m doing this from memory, but I think that was the size that Minecraft was, and I think now it’s around maybe 120 million monthly players.
And we do that, obviously, first of all by fostering creativity, making sure the game evolves and teams have the resources they need to build a great game, because in the end these are great games. With Call of Duty, I think we’ve made some specific agreements with Nintendo and with Nvidia to ensure that the game can appear in more places and obviously you don’t make the biggest game by taking it away from anyone…