Publishing CEO of Activision, Eric Hirshberg, had a lot to say about the company’s move from having Call of Duty as a Microsoft exclusive to a Sony exclusive – he said that it was the ‘right decision.’
Following the rumors on Mountain Dew advertisements, which had PS4 as the tag line for Black Ops 3, Sony confirmed that Black Ops 3 DLC would be coming to PlayStation 4 first at E3. This marks an end to Microsoft’s several years of COD timed-exclusivity; for many, it will be a surprise to have to associate the franchise with PS4 rather than Xbox.
We also saw during Sony’s E3 that PS4 is going to get a timed-exclusive beta for the game. PlayStation has been coined ‘the new home for Call of Duty’… That’s going to take some getting used to, as Andrew House said, this deal between Activision and Sony will continue past Black Ops 3.
The partnership is good for Sony because, let’s face it, their exclusives reveal was looking a little deflated following Microsoft’s conference.
Hirshberg spoke about the transfer from Xbox to Playstation for the players in an interview for GameInformer.
‘We’ve had great players on both platforms the entire time,’ he said, and then went on to explain how Sony’s success with Destiny influenced their decision to partner up.
‘The partnership with Sony was the right decision at this time,’ he said. ‘They’ve been a great partner on Destiny, and they have a ton of momentum with the PS4 and really got behind this thing. They wanted to see that deal on their platform. We’re going to make it work.’
It wasn’t a one way commitment though, as Adam Boyes spoke of how he ‘fell in love instantly’ with the game, in an interview with GameSpot.
‘And so obviously, we just continued talking with our partners at Activision and worked something out. And now we’ve got I think a great benefit to all the gamers.’