It’s no surprise that both Sony and Microsoft are already looking to the future of their video games division and planning what the successor consoles to the PS5 and Xbox Series will be, but until then, we have no idea when they will hit the market.
With the judgment of the lawsuit filed by the FTC against Microsoft, which aims to block the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, it seems that we finally have a forecast of when the new consoles will be launched.
Microsoft said in court, where it is defending its purchase of Activision Blizzard over FTC objections, that the next generation of consoles must start in 2028, an estimate presented as part of its arguments related to the Call of Duty franchise on PlayStation.
Previously, a Sony document submitted to the UK CMA as part of investigations into Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision revealed that the Japanese giant intends to launch the PS6 from 2027, which corroborates with the prediction made by Microsoft.
According to Microsoft, the PlayStation 6 and the new Xbox are expected to hit stores in 2028, which means that a 10-year agreement to keep Call of Duty on Sony’s consoles means that both the PS5 and PS6 will receive the next games of the franchise.
In this way, Call of Duty will be released on future PlayStation consoles, should one be released during the terms of the agreement. The deal also ensures that Call of Duty console games are delivered on PlayStation at par with Xbox.
With this contract, Microsoft defends itself from Sony’s accusations about the possibility of not releasing Call of Duty games on PlayStation consoles or launching inferior versions.
Anyway, Sony has already stated that if the purchase is approved, it will hide the technical details of the PS6 from Activision, which makes sense, since this would imply delivering the projects of its future console to the studio of a rival.
For now, we can only wait to find out the outcome of this trial.
