Phil Spencer wants Call of Duty to be multi-platform “like Minecraft”

In today’s Wall Street Journal Tech Live Conference, CEO of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer indicated his plans to make Call of Duty ubiquitous throughout all gaming platforms. During his time at the event, he stated that “Call of Duty specifically will be available on PlayStation” and that he’d also love to see the ever-popular franchise on the Nintendo Switch and see it playable on many different screens. Spencer clarified his action plan moving forward by saying, “our intent is to treat Call of Duty like Minecraft.”

Minecraft is a sandbox video game that was first released in 2011 and also happened to be one of the most popular video games in history. It is also widely available on multiple platforms, including mobile, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo consoles.

Related: Minecraft 1.20 will bring the heat, adding new camel mob, skins, and more

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer (@xboxp3) on CoD and the Activision deal:

"Call of Duty specifically will be available on PlayStation. I'd love to see it on the Switch, I'd love to see the game playable on many different screens. Our intent is to treat CoD like Minecraft"

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— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) October 26, 2022

Spencer added that “this opportunity is really about mobile for us,” implying that he and his team want to reach a broader audience by targeting mobile platform users, which make up a significant part of the gaming community. He backed up his claims by noting that there are only about 200 million console users compared to the billions of people playing video games as a whole.

These statements by Spencer were preceded by Microsoft’s announcement regarding the purchase of Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard back in January of this year. That was then followed subsequently by the constant exchanges between Sony and Xbox regarding the availability of Call of Duty on other platforms.

Even more important, though, was what came after the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) ruled that Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard may be violating the country’s laws for fair competition within industries. This, of course, was a sentiment echoed by Sony as they argued that Microsoft’s ownership of Call of Duty would end up influencing consumer console choices in the long run.

However, Call of Duty’s inclusion on other platforms wasn’t Spencer’s only focus during the WSJ Tech Live Conference. He also mentioned plans for the Xbox mobile store, the current profitability of Game Pass, and the potential console and Game Pass subscription price increases, among other topics.

Phil Spencer hints at future Xbox Game Pass or console price increases at WSJ Live

"I do think at some point we'll have to raise the prices on certain things, but going into this holiday we thought it was important to maintain the prices."

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) October 26, 2022