Microsoft exec says the topic of Call of Duty exclusivity was "never discussed"

A Microsoft exec has claimed that the topic of Call of Duty exclusivity was "never discussed" during acquisition talks, at least not with them. 

This claim comes from Microsoft's chief financial officer Amy Hood (via Axios' Stephen Totilo on Twitter) who revealed - as part of Microsoft's ongoing court hearing with the US Federal Trade Commission over its Activision acquisition - that talks about Call of Duty's exclusivity with Microsoft wasn't ever mentioned during the company's acquisition discussions.

"The possibility of making Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox was never assessed or discussed with me," Hood writes in the document, "nor was it even mentioned in any of the presentations to or discussions with the Board of Directors." 

As Totilo also points out in a follow-up tweet, Hood's declaration also reveals that the final presentation to Microsoft's board of directors stated that the company's intention was to: "[c]ontinue developing all acquired games and franchises, and continue selling on all relevant platforms (e.g., Android, iOS, PlayStation, Steam, Switch, Windows, Xbox, etc.)"  

It appears that Hood was serious about this intention, as earlier this year Microsoft signed a deal to put Call of Duty on Nintendo consoles for 10 years - regardless of the fact the UK's Competition and Markets Authority believes that the FPS series will have a hard time running on the hybrid console. 

Elsewhere during Microsoft's and the FTC's trial, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that he doesn't like the idea of console-exclusive games and that if it was up to him, he'd get rid of them. It was also revealed earlier this week, via an internal email from Xbox Games Studio head Matt Booty, that Microsoft was ready to "spend Sony out of business" back in 2019.

The topic of making Activision titles console exclusives has troubled Sony in particular, but who can blame it when in 2021, more than a million PlayStation players only played Call of Duty.