It's been something we reported about weekly for almost two years, but in October, it was finalized that Microsoft has bought Activision Blizzard King for almost $69 billion. Sony fought hard to stop this deal, and for seemingly good reasons.
Due to the hacker attack against Insomniac recently, there are now leaked documents that reveals Sony was worried that Microsoft would "leapfrog" Playstation after the acquisition was finalized. The main thing is of course Call of Duty, which Sony calls a "incredible strategic value", and writes they fear the series getting added to Game Pass in the future will "disrupt and threaten console gaming and game subscription markets", adding that this is a< "massive threat to Playstation Plus".
As we've previously reported, Microsoft is currently planning to launch a mobile storefront and already owns Battle.net, something that Sony also thinks is worrisome and admits their own pillars are "already dated and behind the competition".
These documents seems to predate the agreement between Microsoft and Sony to continue launching the Call of Duty series on Playstation for another ten years, but previously Sony has been paying Activision to get exclusive deals and content for the series. Since the acquisition, Sony won't have these benefits anymore and it we could imagine Xbox having bundles and marketing with Call of Duty, and the series being added to Game Pass starting 2024.
Sony are clearly thinking about this as well and writes that "with timing and in-game differentials as the weapons", the Call of Duty audience could be shifting from Playstation to Xbox in the future.
How much impact do you expect all this to have a couple of years from now?