It is no secret that the future of Call of Duty's availability has been a source of contention as of late, primarily down to Microsoft's record-breaking purchase of Activision Blizzard earlier this year. While nothing is entirely confirmed as of this moment, there have been numerous debates and concerns raised by leading industry members in relation to what platforms the franchise will be available on in the near future.
With PlayStation being the leading voice behind these industry concerns surrounding Call of Duty, many fans are worried that the working relationship between the two console giants may wane in the near future. Given that PlayStation recently purchased Destiny developer Bungie, the future of the Destiny franchise on Xbox may resultantly be in jeopardy.
Call of Duty's Console Availability
For nearly two decades, Call of Duty has consistently been one of the most frequent and popular franchises in all of gaming, serving as one of the defining IPs of first-person multiplayer that flourished on consoles. With the franchise only growing in scope and scale following the intense recent success of the battle royale Call of Duty Warzone, it can be said that Call of Duty is currently one of the most important and lucrative franchises that a company could own.
Back in January of this year, Microsoft sent shockwaves throughout the entertainment industry with its colossal $68.7 billion purchase of high-profile gaming studio Activision Blizzard. While the deal has not yet been formally completed, the relatively high likelihood that it will finalize has understandably left other platforms worried about possibly losing access to such a definitive and must-have IP.
Xbox has been very open with its ethos of "gaming for everyone" in relation to its recent spate of acquisitions, with Xbox head Phil Spencer publicly writing to Sony's Jim Ryan to confirm that Microsoft has no plans to make the franchise Xbox exclusive for the foreseeable future. While this is undoubtedly a positive for PlayStation's prospects, the worry that Xbox may slowly change its stance over time could lead to Sony leveraging its owned franchises to level the playing field or create a stalemate.
The Future of Destiny On Consoles
PlayStation has been very vocal about its concerns surrounding Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard, meaning it is very possible that the company will be looking to impose its own accessibility limitations to studios that it owns. While it is true that Sony does not have the same level of spending power as Microsoft to facilitate the same kinds of massive business acquisitions, the popular Destiny franchise could become a shrewd bargaining chip.
Sony acquired Destiny developer Bungie for $3.6 billion back in January, roughly at the same time as news of Xbox's Activision deal was circulating. While Bungie was originally known for spearheading Xbox's famous Halo franchise, the company has since found success with the popular online first-person shooter series Destiny, which now comes under the Sony name.
Historically, the Destiny franchise has enjoyed availability across Xbox and PlayStation platforms as well as PC, but the uncertainty surrounding Call of Duty's future may mean that Destiny on Xbox consoles could be caught in the crossfire between the two gaming giants. Should Call of Duty eventually become overwhelmingly catered to, or even exclusive to, Xbox consoles, Sony very well may pull Destiny from Xbox to help mitigate the resultant damage to its profit margins.
Of course, this is all currently conjecture, with many being of the opinion that the revenue that PlayStation Call of Duty fans bring to the franchise outweighs the potential benefits of Microsoft excluding the platform from future releases. That being said, PlayStation's public discomfort surrounding the Activision deal could spell misfortune for Xbox-based Destiny fans in the near future.