Internal documents that have been published as part of the UK regulator’s investigation into Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard have today revealed new information about the next-gen of consoles.
In a response to the regulator’s concerns around the acquisition (mainly due to Call Of Duty), Microsoft said that these decisions are normally made at the start of a console generation, which it expected would be roughly eight years from the launch of the PS5|Xbox Series X (so 2028).
“The next new generation of consoles are not expected to be released before the fall of 2028 at the very earliest.” said Microsoft.
As part of the investigation, Xbox also said that it will guarantee to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation until at least 2027, which it believed would be adequate timing for PlayStation to re-evaluate its commercial strategy.
Interestingly enough, Sony also referenced this part of the deal referencing its next-gen console launching around 2027/2028.
“Microsoft has offered to continue making Activision’s games available on PlayStation only until 2027… By the time SIE launched the next generation of its PlayStation console (which is likely to occur around [redacted]), it would have lost access to Call of Duty and other Activision titles, making it extremely vulnerable to consumer switching and subsequent degradation in its competitiveness,” Sony said.