PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan has revealed that Xbox offered to keep the Call of Duty franchise on PlayStation for only three additional years after existing deals expire.
However, Ryan isn’t keen on the terms. In a statement to GamesIndustry.biz, he says, “Microsoft has only offered for Call of Duty to remain on PlayStation for three years after the current agreement between Activision and Sony ends. After almost 20 years of Call of Duty on PlayStation, their proposal was inadequate on many levels and failed to take account of the impact on our gamers.”
He continues, “We want to guarantee PlayStation gamers continue to have the highest quality Call of Duty experience, and Microsoft’s proposal undermines this principle.”
Ryan explains that while this is a matter of private business, he elected to bring the discussion up publicly as a result of Microsoft announcing that it reached out to Sony with an agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation.
Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard faced some additional scrutiny last week due to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority saying that the merger could affect competition. Xbox’s Phil Spencer responded by saying that franchises like Call of Duty, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft would be added to Xbox Game Pass and also that juggernaut franchises like Call of Duty would remain multiplatform.
PlayStation’s deal with Call of Duty reportedly covers the next three releases, which also includes this year’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Ryan’s statement indicates that the franchise could be removed from PlayStation platforms within the next few years and become exclusive to the Microsoft ecosystem eventually.
Remember when transparent gadgets were the coolest things you could own? Sony is bringing that late '90s aesthetic back with its new PS5 Prism Collection. The gorgeous lineup gives your DualSense controller and PS5 console a glossy, see-through makeover in three eye-catching colors.
https://twitter.com/PlayStation/status/2115459064981512662?s=19
For years, Call of Duty’s campaign mode has used big, scripted set pieces to tell the overarching story amid all the adrenaline-pumping action. The 2023 Modern Warfare 3 tried to shake up the established formula by introducing a handful of short open combat missions, and I genuinely liked the idea, but the game's overall negative reception seeped into how those missions were received.
I feared the next iteration might abandon the idea because of the backlash, but I am glad it didn't. MW4’s “Stranded” mission uses the same approach, but instead of fragmenting it across the campaign, it puts it all in a single large-scale open-world mission.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.