Xbox's Phil Spencer promises not to "pull the rug underneath PlayStation 7's legs" with Call of Duty access
"Native Call of Duty on PlayStation."
Xbox boss Phil Spencer has further clarified his position regarding Call of Duty's future on PlayStation following Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Speaking via the Decoder podcast, Spencer said the company intended to sell Call of Duty on PlayStation "for as long as players want to play Call of Duty on PlayStation".
Back in September, Spencer made a written commitment to PlayStation's Jim Ryan that Call of Duty will remain on PlayStation. However, Ryan labelled the statement "inadequate on many levels," while others point out that a commitment is not a legally binding contract.
"It's not about at some point I pull the rug underneath PlayStation 7's legs and it's ah ha you just didn't write the contract long enough," Spencer said in the podcast. "There's no contract that could be written that says forever.
"This idea that we would write a contract that says the word forever in it I think is a little bit silly, but to make a longer-term commitment that Sony would be comfortable with, regulators would be comfortable with, I have no issue with that at all."
Decoder host Nilay Patel also pointed to the fact availability can come in different forms, and that Microsoft could theoretically only make Call of Duty available to PlayStation via cloud streaming.
"Native Call of Duty on PlayStation," responded Spencer, "not linked to them having to carry Game Pass, not streaming. If they want a streaming version of Call of Duty, we could do that as well, just like we do on our own consoles."
Still, this new interview comes as the acquisition comes under greater scrutiny from more regulators, with both the EU and UK now undertaking in-depth investigations.