PlayStation says downgraded Call Of Duty will cause 'irreparable damage'

Oh dear, oh my. The PlayStation vs Xbox saga continues - and I’m not talking about the so-called ‘console wars’. As a community, us gamers have matured and grown. Sony and Microsoft cannot stop bickering though due to the uncertain future of the Call of Duty franchise.

In case you missed it, Microsoft is in the midst of trying to acquire Activision for a whopping $69 billion. It’s possible then that Call of Duty could eventually become an Xbox-exclusive - something that PlayStation isn’t thrilled about. Microsoft originally said this wouldn’t happen before later confessing, well, at least not for “several years” anyway. It’s an aspect of the deal that’s causing pushback from industry regulators so Microsoft have reportedly offered Sony a 10-year access deal to CoD. The problem is, Sony is worried that PlayStation users will get a downgraded experience.

Xbox-exclusive Starfield launches later this year.

Sony is seemingly concerned that Microsoft will sabotage them by shipping a lower-quality Call of Duty game to PlayStation users. As reported by TweakTown, Sony’s Jim Ryan talked about this possibility, saying that it could cause irreparable damage. He explained that it would “seriously damage our reputation. Our gamers would desert our platform in droves and network effects would exacerbate the problem. Our business would never recover."

Microsoft have said nothing to suggest that they would purposefully downgrade Call of Duty to sabotage PlayStation. At this stage though, both parties are clearly going to argue every case they can in order to try and either block or push through the acquisition. In fact, to appease regulators, Microsoft even said they’d look at launching Call of Duty on the Nintendo Switch.

PlayStation fans have argued that, in the worst case scenario, PlayStation could just launch their own Call of Duty rival. Many suggested that Resistance would be the perfect franchise to revive.