Poll: How does Call of Duty show up on PlayStation going forward?

Governergrimm · Jan 22, 2022

Obviously the Activision/Blizzard acquisition is going to be a hot topic for a while to come. I am not so much interested in Phil's word salad as I am what the general consensus here in Era land is. So rather than trying to color perspectives with my opinion what do YOU think is going to happen?

I tried to cover as many bases as possible for options but with only 7 options I couldn't hit every possiblity.

Edit: I apologize, Mostly should end with" PlayStation with exclusive content and or perks on Xbox/Gamepass."

Combichristoffersen · Jan 22, 2022

Limited. They'll honour existing contracts and that's it.

Lobster Roll · Jan 22, 2022

Mainline titles: Once contractual obligations are over, COD on PlayStation is over
Warzone: Once the game jumps to a new iteration or becomes "Warzone 2.0" or whatever, Warzone on PlayStation is over

Warzone is too linked to the mainline titles to have a half-baked version of Warzone on PlayStation forever.

MegaSackman · Jan 22, 2022

It's like when your ex is your sister's new boyfriend and becomes friends of the family.

Stowaway Silfer · Jan 22, 2022

I think there might already be a topic or 4 where this could be discussed.

Hippopuncher12 · Jan 22, 2022

Warzone for sure. Any existing contracts, yes. After that who knows? I personally think it makes sense to keep CoD multi plat while taking anything else and making it exclusive. In comparison to stuff like Bethesda games they will still make a ton of money from micro transactions, but we will see.

alr1ght · Jan 22, 2022

"We tried to get COD on PS#, but Sony said no to GamePass. It's not our fault. ;) "

LossAversion · Jan 22, 2022

History shows that they will honor existing contracts and keep ongoing games, like Warzone, on PlayStation. Beyond that, new games will be exclusive unless they work out a new deal with Sony.

Governergrimm · Jan 22, 2022

I myself, think it will be partial. They will honor contracts then only Warzone will show up on PlayStation.

DontHateTheBacon · Jan 22, 2022

I think they'll keep F2P shit on PS since that really won't drive Game Pass numbers. The rest will be exclusive to Game Pass/Xbox.

Governergrimm · Jan 22, 2022

Silfer said:
I think there might already be a topic or 4 where this could be discussed.

Sure, this is specifically to gauge Era in a Poll. The news is large enough that it will be all over Era for a long time to come. I m mostly interested in the Poll.

SunBroDave · Jan 22, 2022

I know its early, but poll results are surprisingly non-delusional

CloseTalker · Jan 22, 2022

People are crazy to think Warzone would go exclusive. That's literally throwing money away. COD proper, though? I expect that to only be on Xbox eventually

Bessy67 · Jan 22, 2022

Honestly it could depend on how willing Sony is to deal. Not necessarily just money, but maybe MS could try to leverage getting something like Spiderman, which isn't a PS IP anyways, on Xbox for continuing to support PS with CoD. But realistically I'd guess they'll honor existing contracts then it'll be exclusive to PC/Xbox. If the main driver of this deal is growing game pass then you need to lure playstation owners from Sony's ecosystem and you're not going to do that if you continue to release CoD on playstation.

Deleted member 49611 · Jan 22, 2022

any games that are due to be released on PS will still be released on it. warzone will stay on PS. but going forward any new CoD games will be exclusive to Xbox/PC unless it's a live service mp game like Warzone. your annual CoD game including MP will be on Xbox/PC.

PlanetSmasher · Jan 22, 2022

You will never see another "new release" of Call of Duty after the deal closes. Warzone will stick around for a while, but as soon as the next Warzone comes out that will be Xbox exclusive too.

Simply put, do not expect to see any new CoD on PS5 shelves (physical or digital) after the end of next year.

Alexandros · Jan 22, 2022

I think it will just be Warzone after all existing contracts are completed, although Spencer's tweet gave me the impression that COD may be used as a bargaining chip for something else.

jaymzi · Jan 22, 2022

I have been told MS is very pro consumer and bought Activision Blizzard to save us from evil Facebook/Google buying them.

So they will do what is best for gamers everywhere.

HellofaMouse · Jan 22, 2022

warzone only after contracts are done, is my guess

Deleted member 93062 · Jan 22, 2022

PlanetSmasher said:
You will never see another "new release" of Call of Duty after the deal closes. Warzone will stick around for a while, but as soon as the next Warzone comes out that will be Xbox exclusive too.

Simply put, do not expect to see any new CoD on PS5 shelves (physical or digital) after the end of next year.

If Sony's marketing deal is until 2025 than we should see 3 more CoDs on PlayStation (assuming they keep yearly games and we include MW2 later this year).

Deleted member 22750 · Jan 22, 2022

Just the contracts

no gamepass
No new entries

just warzone + any new gaas type that is the follow up to warzone

Laver · Jan 22, 2022

Bessy67 said:
Not necessarily just money, but maybe MS could try to leverage getting something like Spiderman, which isn't a PS IP anyways, on Xbox for continuing to support PS with CoD.

That would be a great situation where all sides win.

Deleted member 93062 · Jan 22, 2022

jaymzi said:
I have been told MS is very pro consumer and bought Activision Blizzard to save us from evil Facebook/Google buying them.

So they will do what is best for gamers everywhere.

Can't be "pro-consumer" or "anti-consumer" to people who aren't your consumers.

NeoBob688 · Jan 22, 2022

Fulfill existing contracts and thereafter only Call of Duty free to play (mobile, warzone)

Combichristoffersen · Jan 22, 2022

Bessy67 said:
Honestly it could depend on how willing Sony is to deal. Not necessarily just money, but maybe MS could try to leverage getting something like Spiderman, which isn't a PS IP anyways, on Xbox for continuing to support PS with CoD.

MS can already do that, they'd just need to license the character from Disney, like Sony did, and have one of their studios make a Spidey game.

HMD · Jan 22, 2022

They'll give Warzone the Minecraft treatment. No annual CoD releases on PS5, but Warzone will remain as is cause I'm sure some contractual shit is gonna mess with them ever taking that off of PS.

Frieza · Jan 22, 2022

Warzone 1.0 remains on PlayStation every other COD post contractual obligations will be Xbox/PC including Warzone 2.0.

Sullivan said:
If Sony's marketing deal is until 2025 than we should see 3 more CoDs on PlayStation (assuming they keep yearly games and we include MW2 later this year).

Where is this 2025 coming from?

Lobster Roll · Jan 22, 2022

CloseTalker said:
People are crazy to think Warzone would go exclusive. That's literally throwing money away. COD proper, though? I expect that to only be on Xbox eventually

It's not crazy. Are you familiar with Warzone and how inextricably linked it is to the mainline COD titles? Currently, the game has weapons from Modern Warfare, Cold War, and Vanguard. All three titles are available on PlayStation and people can (and do) grind those weapons out in those respective titles. All of the cosmetic bundles are for weapons for these games as well and these bundles are applied to both the standalone games and Warzone.

In the event that Warzone is rebooted, they're not going to continue to jam MORE weapons into it forever. When the reboot happens, all of those bundles and weapon levels and unlocks will be reset and Warzone will begin anew that will start with a fresh weapon pool from the most recent title at that time. It'll use the updated engine as well. So is Xbox really going to ensure that the new engine and new experience works for PS5 and then also not make the new standalone title available? It seems like a lot of effort to provide PlayStation players with a severely limited experience.

Governergrimm · Jan 22, 2022

Sullivan said:
If Sony's marketing deal is until 2025 than we should see 3 more CoDs on PlayStation (assuming they keep yearly games and we include MW2 later this year).

I think that is a huge blind spot in the conversation. We don't know how long Sony's marketing deal for CoD is. I tried to account for it by being ambiguous with time frames.

R0987 · Jan 22, 2022

If cod keeps being released on playstation even after all obligations are met I could see Sony dropping the ps plus requirment for online play as a way to entince the COD crowd to stick with playstation.

Deleted member 13798 · Jan 22, 2022

Like it always has. Phil hasn't really been that dodgy about the question so far, like he has in the past with confusing wording.

bushmonkey · Jan 22, 2022

If you take Minecraft as an example, I can see Warzine remaining so it can keep being a strong competitor to Apex, PUBG and Fortnite otherwise the player base may just move to one of other titles if anyone in their friend list can't access it anymore. That's my theory anyway. I would be truly shocked if Mainline games were to be on PlayStation once existing contracts are through.

VeePs · Jan 22, 2022

Lobster Roll said:
Mainline titles: Once contractual obligations are over, COD on PlayStation is over
Warzone: Once the game jumps to a new iteration or becomes "Warzone 2.0" or whatever, Warzone on PlayStation is over

Warzone is too linked to the mainline titles to have a half-baked version of Warzone on PlayStation forever.

This is my current speculation as well. Current iteration of Warzone will probably go on until 2026 or something I'm guessing.

I'm going to guess that Microsoft will keep Treyarch and IW on CoD and switch CoD to releases every 2 years. So MW2 in 2022, Black Ops in 2024, MW Rebooted in 2026.

In 2026 they can transition Warzone 2.0 to current gen consoles only and ultimately have Xbox be the only console with Warzone.

Deleted member 93062 · Jan 22, 2022

Frieza said:
Where is this 2025 coming from?

Just a number I've heard thrown around, that PlayStation had it for 2014-2019 CoDs and renewed for 2020-2024 CoDs.

Frieza · Jan 22, 2022

Governergrimm said:
I think that is a huge blind spot in the conversation. We don't know how long Sony's marketing deal for CoD is. I tried to account for it by being ambiguous with time frames.

You did account for it you said contractual obligations any Sony deal with Activision would fall under that.

Deleted member 93062 · Jan 22, 2022

Governergrimm said:
I think that is a huge blind spot in the conversation. We don't know how long Sony's marketing deal for CoD is. I tried to account for it by being ambiguous with time frames.

Also a massive blind spot I haven't heard talked about enough, Sony marketing deal 100% has stipulations against putting the games on Game Pass (without being on PS's subscription service first).

tapedeck · Jan 22, 2022

Existing contracts and Warzone. That's it.

edit: I'll also say 'Warzone 2.0' or whatever won't be on PlayStation.

entremet · Jan 22, 2022

Fury451 said:
Like it always has. Phil hasn't really been that dodgy about the question so far, like he has in the past with confusing wording.

They spend 70 billion to keep it on a rival platform?

Phil hasn't said anything definite since the deal needs to be approved by regulators.

If he said, "Nope it's coming off PlayStation, bitches!" do you think that would look for the perception of this deal? He needs to be diplomatic.

cooldawn · Jan 22, 2022

HMD said:
They'll give Warzone the Minecraft treatment. No annual CoD releases on PS5, but Warzone will remain as is cause I'm sure some contractual shit is gonna mess with them ever taking that off of PS.

I think this is it. I can't see those single releases being on PlayStation after all current contractual obligations have been met.

Warzone is a live service so I would expect that to continue to be available on all platforms.

Deleted member 93062 · Jan 22, 2022

entremet said:
They spend 70 billion to keep it on a rival platform?

I would like to believe Phil paid 70 billion to get us a new Transformers game by High Moon.

Frieza · Jan 22, 2022

Sullivan said:
Just a number I've heard thrown around, that PlayStation had it for 2014-2019 CoDs and renewed for 2020-2024 CoDs.

I think MS just stopped bidding for it after 2014 the Xbox division was on shoe string budget I wouldn't really think the timeline means anything. I could be wrong though

TooBusyLookinGud · Jan 22, 2022

Can this be asked in one of the many threads already floating around?

PLASTICA-MAN · Jan 22, 2022

tapedeck said:
Existing contracts and Warzone. That's it.

And I still think if even Warzone releases on current-gen it will be Series exclusive and not on PS5, same as Hellblade, Psychonauts, We Happy Few and others. Activision took toooooo much time to even move when it comes to bringing Warzone to current gen and this deal will change things even more.

DeoGame · Jan 22, 2022

My guesses:

Honour existing contracts, use promise of releasing CoD multiplat for the full gen to get Sony to drop the "not on Game Pass" clause if one such one exists, CoD mainline finishes out the gen, goes full exclusive starting PS6/Series Y gen barring Warzone which goes multiplat in perpetuity.

CoD also switches to biannual releases and Toys for Bob, High Moon, Raven and Beenox go back to reviving old IP across Xbox, Bethesda and ABK. Radical and Vicarious Visions are reformed.

Those are my guesses.

Deleted member 10795 · Jan 22, 2022

I've optimistically voted in favour of full releases on PlayStation.

With the goal being to grow GP, I think "free" on Xbox/GP + $70 on PlayStation still does that, and without pissing off huge chunks of the audience you want to bring with you in the future.

I also think Xbox will remain somewhat careful of not scorching the Earth when it comes to consumer and business relationships. Again, perhaps naively, but I do trust that their aim isn't to drive Sony out of the hardware business. On the contrary, I bet MS would be happy for Sony to sell 100+ million PlayStations as long as GamePass was on them. Maybe there's even a point where Microsoft would cede hardware to Sony entirely if GP became profitable enough and the numbers made sense from GP on PS (and other places).

Either way, be it keeping the status quo or GP on PlayStation, I don't think PS5 or PS6 lose out on COD. There's too much mutual interest and too much money on the table. There's deals to be made.

Governergrimm · Jan 22, 2022

Frieza said:
You did account for it you said contractual obligations any Sony deal with Activision would fall under that.

Sullivan said:
Also a massive blind spot I haven't heard talked about enough, Sony marketing deal 100% has stipulations against putting the games on Game Pass (without being on PS's subscription service first).

These are both reasons I worded as existing contracts. But until I threw it out there for others to see I wasn't sure if there glaring holes in the way I worded it. Thank you both.

Splader · Jan 22, 2022

Warzone isn't going anywhere.

CoD mainline games will be where gamepass is.

Deleted member 93062 · Jan 22, 2022

DeoGame said:
to get Sony to drop the "not on Game Pass"

They would have to break the whole deal or also put it on Spartacus day one, there's no way Sony will spend probably north of 100 million marketing a CoD to have it be on Game Pass day one.

Deleted member 13798 · Jan 22, 2022

entremet said:
They spend 70 billion to keep it on a rival platform?

Phil hasn't said anything definite since the deal needs to be approved by regulators.

If he said, "Nope it's coming off PlayStation, bitches!" do you think that would look for the perception of this deal? He needs to be diplomatic.

I don't see how they wouldn't win by keeping it on PS.

I'm not sure 70bil in the gamble that everyone will suddenly throw their playstations in the trash to buy xboxes for call of duty makes sense either. That's not what is going to happen in the short term, and is questionable in the long term. I think they're playing a different game with this deal than Bethesda where it was obviously to fold the IP in. This would allow them to essentially farm money and deals from Sony which is probably a better benefit for their market plans- this is a giant expansion deal and I don't think they're looking at it as solely "we're now just going to take our new IP and go home".

Smaller IP though? Yeah, totally exclusive.

Duxxy3 · Jan 22, 2022

Honor existing contracts. I'm not sure what that will mean for Warzone.

Poll: How does Call of Duty show up on PlayStation going forward?

In what capacity will future installments of Call of Duty be on Playstation?

None, Microsoft will buy out/pay penalties to remove all instances of CoD on Playstation that they c

Limited, MS will honor existing contracts. Nothing more.

Partial, MS will honor existing contracts and then only release Warzone after obligations are met

Mostly, MS will honor all contracts and keep the CoD franchise on Playstation but with

Full, MS will honor all contracts and Cod will release on PlayStation day and date at parity.

Complete, MS will treat Activision Blizzard as a 3rd party release all Activision Blizzard games on

Gamepass, CoD will be the Trojan Horse MS uses to try to get Gamepass on PlayStation

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