Is Call of Duty coming to Game Pass? We summarize the latest developments.
The biggest deal in industry history has been hanging in the air for nine months: Microsoft is buying Activision Blizzard for a staggering $68.7 billion. However, antitrust authorities still have a say.
The British Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) wants to take a close look at the billion dollar business, and the EU has also announced such steps. Apparently, the focus is on the sales heavyweight Call of Duty, specifically the question of Microsoft exclusivity.
Lawsuit against Activision Blizzard
Activision Blizzard is currently facing a lawsuit alleging sexism and unequal treatment of female employees. If the grievances play a role in your purchase decision, we have summarized all the information on the sexism lawsuit in a detailed article for you. You can read our attitude and consequences to the processes in a leading article on the Blizzard scandal by GameStar editor-in-chief Heiko Klinge.
Meanwhile, CoD Modern Warfare 2 is already on the home stretch for release:
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CoD Modern Warfare 2: Gameplay trailer promises over 500 options for the PC version
What is now known
Xbox boss Phil Spencer said shortly after the planned deal became known that Microsoft would respect all contracts between Sony and Activision and Keep Call of Duty on PlayStation
want to.
link to Twitter content
Now Microsoft got even more specific. Like the publisher in a opinion announced to the CMA, as part of the agreements between Sony and Activision, Microsoft will produce Call of Duty for several years
not allowed to bring into Game Pass.
The full text of the footnote:
The agreement between Activision Blizzard and Sony includes
Restrictions on Activision Blizzard’s ability to offer Call of Duty titles in Game Pass for a number of years.
Footnote from Microsoft’s response to a CMA reference decision
This formulation suggests that Microsoft will probably not offer the new CoD MW 2 in the Game Pass. However, it remains unclear how the next Call of Duty will look like, which will probably not appear until 2024 after a year’s break. At least until it is specified how long the agreements between Sony and Activision will remain valid.
We are working on the concrete effects for us players of the mega takeover:
In any case, the deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard is not yet done, as the extensive correspondence between Microsoft and antitrust authorities confirms. So we’ll have to wait and see how the whole thing develops.
